[ytechie]

I've heard that all map projections are a compromise. Is this a leftover of printed maps?

If you take a photo of the earth, you can't argue that it's inaccurate, as it's literally a photo. When you use something like Google Earth, it's the same deal. You can rotate the map and everything is rendered fairly accurately for any given perspective. Aren't they an accurate representation?

[batmanthehorse]

It's a fact of projecting the surface of a sphere onto a 2D plane. You can't see every side of the earth at once in Google Earth. Even the globe you look at in Google Earth is distorted since it's still a 3D projection into 2D. Looking at it from the equator, countries at the equator will appear larger relative to countries near the poles.

Anyway! This site is really cool. I think 'Natural Earth' is most satisfying to me subjectively. Looks close enough to what we're all raised with, and seems to have a good balance of various types of distortion.

[joebergeron]

Try peeling an orange with as few tears as possible, and flattening the skin against a hard surface.