A new book out this week called A History of the World in Twelve Maps concludes the age of the paper map is over and online mapping is the future.

The author of the book, Jerry Brotton, explained that online maps "are now enormous business... for the first time we have a map that is used to sell us stuff".

He told the Today programme that in history there had always been a diversity of maps, but that now "the fact is that Google is dominating the [online map] market".

The Guardian's technology editor, Charles Arthur, believes, however, that it is not right to say that Google has a vast monopoly on the market.

He mentioned Open Street Map was "like a Wikipedia of map", with "no commercial intent at all".

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