Google is adding more detail to its maps with a new color-mapping algorithm that uses information from satellite imagery to improve the rendering of natural features.

The company's new color-mapping algorithm gives you a better lay of the land.

This new UI basically is a hybrid fo the two. Google says it took its satellite images and then applied a newly-developed color-mapping algorithm, which pulls out natural features and color codes ...

The team designed an algorithm capable of analyzing traffic data to determine which routes offer the least risk of accidents.

So basically the algorithm was working on two tasks: coming up with sequences of letters to form color names, and coming up with sequences of numbers that map to an RGB value.