[jliechti1]

I'm confused...I thought the Robinson Projection [1] has been the standard for quite some time.

Obviously not the best for navigation, but considered the best compromise for viewing the entire Earth in two dimensions.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_projection

[zokier]

> I'm confused...I thought the Robinson Projection [1] has been the standard for quite some time.

If only. Mercator projection is still quite widespread. Try google image search of world map.

[micampe]

Google Maps itself is mercator when fully zoomed out.

[ygra]

Also when zoomed in. For computer maps it certainly has nice properties when your map is rectangular. Not that Mercator is the only one that is, but it's probably the most-widely known.