[Rangi42]

From the Google Maps & Earth Help Forum[1]:

> Why does Google maps use the inaccurate, ancient and distorted Mercator Projection?

> Maps uses Mercator because it preserves angles. The first launch of Maps actually did not use Mercator, and streets in high latitude places like Stockholm did not meet at right angles on the map the way they do in reality. While this distorts a 'zoomed-out view' of the map, it allows close-ups (street level) to appear more like reality. The majority of our users are looking down at the street level for businesses, directions, etc... so we're sticking with this projection for now.

[1]: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/A2ygEJ5e...