Zooming in (way in) on Google Maps

by Brad Linder on March 8, 2007 at 12:00 PM

Google Maps zoom
How often have you wished that you could look in your own bedroom window using Google Maps, only to realize that you just can't zoom in far enough to see any detail? Well, it turns out that maybe you can.

Here's how it works:
  1. Pick a spot, any spot on Google Maps.
  2. Click on the satellite or hybrid view.
  3. Zoom in as far as you can (optional).
  4. Click the "link to this page" button on the right.
  5. Now go up the URL and look around til you find a string that says "z=". It will probably have a number like 18 or 19 after it.
  6. Change that number to 20 and hit enter.
Now you should be zoomed in just a little bit tighter. It appears there are a ton of locations that you can zoom in to level 20 at. There are a handful of locations that you can zoom into 21, 22, or even 23. Those camels you're looking at are hidden somewhere in the middle of Africa.

You won't be able to see anything with this method that you couldn't access with Google Earth, but it's much cooler than Google Earth because umm... because it's a hidden feature. Yeah, that's it.

Tags: google earth, google maps, GoogleEarth, GoogleMaps, hidden feature, HiddenFeature, zoom