Since we are moving away from print and towards screens, shouldn't we be just using actual globes?

snowwrestler an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Yes. Specially, touch enabled screens with dynamically rendered graphics.

The Google Maps app on my iPhone at one point years ago switched to having a globe as its base, like Google Earth. It was great.

Then Google switched it back to Mercator. But you can scroll infinitely to the left or right, so its base is actually now “Mercator rolled into a tube.” Somehow that’s even worse!

	▲	scotty79 a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		Damn, I knew I've seen google maps going to globe after zooming out, but when I checked today it didn't. I wonder why they rolled that back. Fortunately Google Earth is still a sphere not a cyllinder.

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bawolff 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Screens are still 2D objects requiring projections.

	▲	jameshart an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		With computer generated maps, you can just always use a minimally distorting conical or polar projection centered on the exact point you’re focusing on. That also happens to be broadly what you would get looking straight down at the earth from above that point, which seems like it would also be the least confusing option.
	▲	scotty79 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		yeah, but when people are free to spin and zoom the virtual globe they understand perfectly how the projection relates to the real object, which they don't when it comes to maps