I have tried to remove everything from settings in Firefox, yet it still thinks I want to view a globe when I arrive at maps.google.com. The setting from viewing the globe is off, yet the globe is there.
I have to go into map settings (on the web site) check the normally unchecked box (hover on layers, bottom left, click More and the setting for globe view is there) and then uncheck it again for the map to turn to the projected web Mercator map I want.
Is this the norm now, for everyone, or do I need to do anything else?
According to random info from the net, this seems to be the new default for the sattelite view for mobile devices (so if you changed your user agent this might be it).
For me, the vector map (green countries, blue water) is the one that is in globe view by default. They used to have this default 3D setting for satellite view and aerial imagery some time back, but they changed it after a while. If it had been a default setting made by them, I believe the box where you set the view to globe view would have been checked. It isn’t. I have to check that box, nothing changes from that, and then uncheck it again, after which the map go back to the flat web Mercator. So it’s annoying as hell.
The same problem does not occur on my work computer running that Redmond…thing, on Chrome.
For example, to navigate to an area I know is in the east, on the other side of the world from me, say New Zealand, I know where to look on that flat web Mercator projection. Having to spin that globe manually takes time and working with the map application using a globe, is a completely useless feature. 3D view is useful when you’re zoomed in since it can reveal things not visible on a flat projection, you can sort of view things from an angle. But to quickly navigate around on the map, a flat projection is better.
Yes, when I say “remove everything”, I mean EVERYTHING. Site data, cookies, yada yada yada. All boxes checked. I had to enter heaps of info accept/select which cookies to allow, etc., all over again.
I’ll try with a new profile and see if that solves anything. Doubtful, but it’s easy enough…nope, sadly, didn’t work. Still a globe.
This is entirely a guess - it could be that your settings prevent the browser from accessing your position.
I tested your issue with Firefox - I rarely use it for other than testing my development phases.
And opening google maps open in birds view of the area where I live.
I couldn’t help it - I had to dig into this - asking myself - what causes Google Maps to know where to open …
I found that Google Maps uses your public IP address as an estimate on your location.
We leave traces when we use our electronic devices - and Google has cars driving around every corner of the planet several times a year - they map everything - every wireless network, every wireless device they can scan.
I tested by opening a VPN a connection, in Argentina - I expected the map to be hovering over South America somewhere perhaps even Buenos Aires - but no - I got a map of Europe. Perhaps because Proton VPN is a swiss based company and Google knows ASN’s used by Proton - just guessing.
One more test using VPN - still Proton - This time Colombia endpoint and I got map with Bogotá in the center.
So it seems to be a valid assumption that the public IP is used to show the initial map.
So your public IP address was last used by a phone on the international spacestation
I think this is a bug in Google Maps itself. I can confirm that Firefox and Edge in Windows behave the same way you are mentioning. Google Chrome is the only one that has the globe view fully disabled from the start. Chromium in Linux also seems to behave the way you want.
When I checked this, I got a map centered on Calke Abbey, which is not all that far away, so I’d guess it’s indeed the IP they use (and probably other stuff too).
What I get when I open Google Maps with whatever browser and O.S. is a map centered in my location. BUT when I zoom out is when differences appear. In Firefox (Linux & Windows) and Edge (Windows), a globe appears when zooming out. In Chrome and Chromium (Linux & Windows) the globe doesn’t appear, it’s always a map (Mercator’s projection). What is funny is that Edge in Linux also shows the map when zooming out (in Windows is the globe).
If what OP means is that they get the globe from the beginning, that’s a different thing.
My theory is that the behavior is linked to the browser, not Manjaro or the operating system in general.
Yes, I think you are correct. I believe it all started after an upgrade of Fx (=Firefox) now that I think more about it. It probably wasn’t immediately obvious, since I don’t use maps every hour of every day, but often enough for it to be an annoying bug: Hover the bottom left overview map, click “More”, click the checkbox named “Globe view” twice, once to check it, once to uncheck it and then close the “dialog box” again.
There has been several upgrades to Fx, but none of them has solved the issue. So I’m leaning towards a thing that *oogle need to do in its code to adjust for Fx. They probably won’t be in a hurry to do so. I think they see these things as a perfect opportunity to lure unsuspecting users over to Chrome so they can spy on them more thoroughly.
I have a link in my bookmarks I saved with my default settings, like which language to use and over which area to zoom in and how far above the Earth. You can set all this in the link.
So, to cut things short I will select your reply as the solution (since I also think it is a bug) and hopefully those who use Fx and are registered users on anything *oogle will complain so much that they eventually will do something about it.
I can live with the problem, but it would be better if the problem didn’t exist.
Oh, and thanks for all the interesting theories from everybody who replied. 8)
I made a last test and with an User-Agent switcher plugin, changed how Firefox identifies itself to Google servers. I selected Chrome 147 on Windows. Just with that the globe was gone (test done in Firefox on Linux).
So I think that this confirm what I suspected, it’s not the browser itself the one that decides how to show the map, it’s Google’s application or server the one that decides that. So probably it’s not even linked to a Firefox’s update but the problem comes from some change at Google.
So your public IP address was last used by a phone on the international spacestation 
