I remember when google maps was released for public use, somewhere around 2005. It definitely showed actual pictures of ice back then, and over the years it was becoming more noticeably cracked up and smaller.

Somewhere around 2010, maybe 2012 I remember going to look and they had completely removed the sat photos, presenting us with what we are seeing now.

Im surprised it took someone else this long to notice lol.

Googles official reasoning sounds like some complete bullshit as well...

A commonly cited reason is that the Arctic ice cap is floating on open ocean; there’s no land underneath that reaches sea level. Antarctica, on the other hand, does conceal land above sea level. Thus, the reasoning goes, the Arctic does not qualify as land, and is rendered as ocean based on depth data.

The Arctic is rapidly changing, sometimes the sea ice is broken even right at the North Pole.

Few people care whether they see the ice cap; Google probably provides based on a trade-off of ease-of-provision and customer interest.

Definitely hiding something. If I had to guess based on my observations, how quickly the ice is thawing.