Google-maps – How to view combined (overlaid) Google Map’s map and satellite view

The satellite view is a static image. It will get updated after a period of time (known only to Google) if there is a suitable image available. That image will have to have less than a certain percentage (again known only to Google) of cloud cover so that most, if not all, of the ground is visible.

Images of urban areas will need less cloud cover than rural areas - as there is more to see.

One thing to consider is that Google may well be looking for public domain or low cost imagery as there will be a lot of images required to cover the whole globe at high resolution. While Google does earn a lot of money from it's services they still need to keep costs down. These images are more likely to be older images, the more recent ones are more valuable.

The Lite mode of the new Google Maps does not include the 3D Earth view or other 3D functionality. You can see if you are in lite mode by looking for the "Lite mode" indicator in the bottom right corner of the map.

Lite mode supported browsers and operating systems

The new Google Maps may default to Lite mode for older browsers and operating systems, as well as on browsers that do not support WebGL and on systems where WebGL is known to be unstable. Lite mode supported browses include Safari 6+, IE 10, or IE 11. Lite mode will also work for Windows XP, (except for Firefox) or Mac OSX lower than 10.8.3.

Troubleshooting

If you are having problems running 3D mode, and have a supported browser and operating system as listed above, there may be other issues preventing you from running in 3D mode. There are a few things you can try to resolve the issue:

• Restart your browser
• Ensure you have applied all system updates, particularly video card driver updates.

If the new Google Maps seems slow, using Lite mode can often help improve performance:

• Click this link to switch to Lite Mode: http://www.google.com/maps/preview/?force=canvas
• Click this link to switch to full 3D mode: http://www.google.com/maps/preview/?force=webgl
• Click this link to revert to your system’s default: http://www.google.com/maps/preview/?force=clear

Note: if you are having trouble with one of the links, you may need to edit the URL to align with your regular Google Maps domain (e.g. change .com to .co.uk)