What’s in a name? Google Maps Satellite View was almost called ‘Bird Mode’, had it not been for coder Bret Taylor

CALIFORNIA [USA]: When big companies introduce something, it becomes a standard. For instance, Google Maps calling its popular feature as Satellite View, which may have been even sillier if one of the employees had not secretly coded it this way.

Google Maps co-creator Bret Taylor took to Twitter to reveal the silly Google Maps origin story. The Twitter thread includes the back story of the mapping service’s popular Satellite View feature.

Back in 2005 when the Google Maps team was brainstorming on the name for what we today know as the Satellite View, super bosses Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to hold an executive review when certain decisions were made within the duration of a huge countdown clock.