Google Maps Engine was a browser application that allowed users to upload and store map data and layer it over the existing Google Maps. It was used by private individuals, websites, and corporations to depict and share all kinds of information in a map layout.
When Google introduced Maps Engine in 2013, it quickly attracted lots of businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. They all used the tool to create custom maps and had the option to share them with everyone in the Google Maps Gallery. The shared content could be accessed on Google Earth as well.
Additionally, more than a million websites and third-party apps were using the service and contributing to the archive. Google even added an option for businesses to share jobs and locations among team-members as part of a premium subscription service called Google Maps Coordinate:
At the time, Google had numerous map-related projects going on simultaneously. In 2015 they decided that all future efforts would go towards their Maps API products, and Maps Engine was one of the services to be discontinued.
Support for the tool ended on January 29, 2016, and all data was deleted on February 1.
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