Can I thread hijack and ask what in the world happened to plain old satellite view in google maps ?

As in, go to the maps.google.com website, and the little icon in the corner to see things in a satellite view doesn't exist anymore ... there is only a choice for google earth and streetviews and blah blah blah things I never used.

Although on an old mac running snow leopard, satellite view option is still there.

What is going on ? Why would I not want the option of satellite view ? It seems like I would...