International perspectives on maps and the Internet: An introduction

Abstract

The Mosaic browser, the first to support graphics, was introduced in 1993 and, at some point during that year, the first map was transmitted through the Internet to a web page. Little notice was taken of the first web map but the development of Internet cartography since has been nothing but remarkable. The new medium of communication changed maps from static entities on paper to dynamic products of interaction. Millions of maps are now created by servers every hour and transmitted through the Internet. When we need to find a place or find out about a place, we turn immediately to these servers through the Internet. In a few short years, the World Wide Web has transformed the Internet into the primary medium for the dissemination of spatial information in the form of maps.