Google Maps, the desktop and mobile web mapping service was first introduced. The service users Google's technology to offer satellite imagery, street maps and Street View perspectives, as well as route planner for traveling.
The project first started as a C++ program designed by Lars and Jens Rasmussen from Denmark at a Sydney-based company Where 2 Technologies. It was first designed to be separately downloaded by users, but the company later pitched the idea for a purely web-based product to Google management, changing the method of distribution. In October 2004, the company was acquired by Google. The application was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8, 2005.
WIth Google providing its API for people to use, Google Maps that is entirely made by JavaScript and XML, have been widely reverse-engineered to produce expanded or customized features.