Google maps tiles fail to appear at certain window sizes http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=11&ll=37.159222,-121.953735&spn=0.402212,0.563049&om=1&layer=t This can be easily reproduced by loading the above URL and then resizing your window to a small size, then resizing it to a larger size again. As you drag the window larger missing tiles will draw over the top of the map. Sometimes when loading the map initially the missing tiles draw over the top of the map to begin with.
The inspector says the bad tiles in question are "transparent.png" One example: <img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; position: absolute; left: 272px; top: 270px; width: 256px; height: 256px; " src="http://maps.google.com/intl/en_us/mapfiles/transparent.png"> How they get that way... no clue. Also, why the inspector claims we have loaded lots and lots of the same transparent.png file is unclear to me. I'm not sure if its an inspector bug what.
Back in July 2007, I brought up that Google Maps appears to be checking for Safari and going down a code path that is different from other WebKit based applications like OmniWeb or Dashboard. The bug we are seeing because of this happens when you drag a map around very quickly and the tiles stop updating and just stay gray. Looking at them in the Web Inspector I see that the img elements are not being updated to point to the correct map tile image, but stay pointing at http:​/​/​www.google.com/​intl/​en_us/​mapfiles/​transparent.png. What is the issue being worked-around here that you had to special case Safari? Is there a WebKit bug filed about it? The Safari Google Maps behavior is obviously correct and we would like Google to not check for "Safari" in the user agent string, but instead check for "AppleWebKit". Then users of other WebKit based applications will get the same experience as Safari. I am not sure if this is what you are seeing or what.
As of the end of July 2007, Google Maps no longer looks for "safari" but instead "applewebkit". This can be verified by searching, e.g. http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/99/maps2/main.js for both "safari" and "applewebkit." So that issue is unrelated to this one.
<rdar://problem/5744860>
I am unable to reproduce this with WebKit r43605 on Mac OS 10.5.6. I suggest this be marked as closed.
I think that google maps has changed. I no longer am able to reproduce this either.
Wrong resolution.