Web Mercator, Google Web Mercator, Spherical Mercator, WGS 84 Web Mercator, Spherical Mercator, WGS 84 Web Mercator or WGS 84/Pseudo-Mercator is a variation of the Mercator projection and is the de facto standard for Web mapping applications. It rose to prominence when used in the first Google Maps in 2005. It is used by virtually all major online map providers, including Google Maps, Bing Maps, Mapquest, Mapbox, OpenStreetMap and many others.