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The Mercator is like circumcision. There might be many reasons invoked for it, but the main reason is that it's just what people in the US are familiar with. Ev
by Bakary 4y ago
The Mercator is like circumcision. There might be many reasons invoked for it, but the main reason is that it's just what people in the US are familiar with. Even with no real trade-offs it's fairly clear that Google would still have picked it.
- bnralt 4y agoApparently Mercator wasn't the original projection they used[1]. But they found that it worked better for giving people directions because it preserved route angles in higher latitude regions (it's benefit for navigation is the reason it became so popular, from my understanding). For what it's worth, I feel like I don't actually come across the Mercator projection that often (I'd say the Robinson projection is more popular in schools, for instance). [1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/5/17653122/google-maps-update-mercator-projection-earth-isnt-flat https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/5/17653122/google-maps-updat...
- Bakary 4y agoI stand corrected!