I uprated you, but honestly it's incredibly useful to see the satellite details for several things - find a kids park with good greenery (or extensive playground) via satellite map as opposed to Google/yelp directory information is a hell of a lot easier. If you're looking to buy a house, you can easily determine if the location is close to any undesirable looking areas. Some minor landmarks (say, a parking lot) are also visible to satellite that may not be shown or easily inferred without imagery.

A picture (tile) is worth at 1,000 words indeed.

That depends on what you are using the map view for.

I've often used the satellite/hybrid view to help orient myself in unfamiliar cities or areas by finding reference points (coloured buildings, obvious statues or landmarks etc)...

If you just want to know that a given address is on street X between avenues 4 and 5, then sure, but that's not the only use for a Maps app..

Maybe I'm just an excessive planner, but I like satellite maps and google's street view for things such as: locating parking lot entrances, locating exactly where a business I'm visiting is, scoping out street parking, getting an idea of the neighborhood's look, and, of course, seeing if my car is pictured anywhere.

> Even satellite map tiles are too- way too much extra, unimportant information.

They're great for geocaching though.