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Tag: Street View

  • No More Standalone Google Street View App

    No More Standalone Google Street View App

    Google is retiring its standalone Street View app, with plans to kill it effective March 2023.

    First spotted by 9to5Google, the latest version of Street View contains hidden notices that point to the app’s impending demise.

    Street View App is going away

    The app is going away and support will end March 21, 2023.

    To publish your own 360 video, switch to Street View Studio. To view Street View and add Photo Spheres, use Google Maps.

    Users will still be able to access the Street View feature in the Google Maps app.

  • Users Can Now Contribute to Google Street View

    Users Can Now Contribute to Google Street View

    Google has announced a change to the Street View app for Android, allowing users to contribute to Street View in Google Maps.

    Google’s Street View cars are an iconic part of the company’s culture. The internet is filled with hilarious pictures of the odd situation that just happened to be caught on camera, as well as those situations when people saw the car coming and managed to pull off a pose.

    Now virtually anyone with an Android phone can contribute to Street View. Stafford Marquardt, Product Manager, Google Maps Street View, outlined how it will work:

    With our updated Street View app on Android, it’s now easier than ever to collect your own Street View imagery and put it in the right place on Google Maps. Using our new connected photos tool in the app, you can record a series of connected images as you move down a street or path.

    These images are captured using ARCore, the same augmented reality technology we use to produce experiences like Live View. After you record your images and publish them via the Street View app, we automatically rotate, position and create a series of connected photos. We then place those connected images in the right place on Google Maps, so your new Street View can be found in the exact location where it was taken for others to see and explore.

    It’s a safe bet this feature will be a big hit with users, and will likely spawn a whole new generation of funny moments caught on camera.

  • New Apple Maps Rolls Out Nationwide

    New Apple Maps Rolls Out Nationwide

    Apple has been working on improve Maps since 2018 and the company announced the new version has rolled out to all U.S. customers.

    Image Source: Apple
    Image Source: Apple

    Apple Maps has lagged behind Google Maps since its introduction, but Apple began an intense effort to close the gap, deploying fleets of camera-equipped Apple Vans to gather much more detailed information about roads, buildings, landmarks and topography.

    “We set out to create the best and most private maps app on the planet that is reflective of how people explore the world today,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in the press release. “It is an effort we are deeply invested in and required that we rebuild the map from the ground up to reimagine how Maps enhances people’s lives — from navigating to work or school or planning an important vacation — all with privacy at its core. The completion of the new map in the United States and delivering new features like Look Around and Collections are important steps in bringing that vision to life. We look forward to bringing this new map to the rest of the world starting with Europe later this year.”

    Maps also offers a similar feature as Google Maps’ Street View.

    Image Source: Apple
    Image Source: Apple

    “Maps offers interactive street-level imagery with high-resolution, 3D photography and smooth and seamless transitions through major cities with Look Around. Customers from anywhere in the world can navigate through New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and Oahu, with many more places to come.”

    One area where Apple has worked to differentiate itself from Google and other tech companies is its strong commitment to privacy. The company took the opportunity to point out how Maps respects user privacy.

    “Apple is committed to keeping personal information safe and has built privacy into the core of Maps. With Maps, no sign-in is required and it is not connected to an Apple ID in any way. Personalized features, such as suggesting departure time to make the next appointment, are created using on-device intelligence. Any data collected by Maps while using the app, like search terms, navigation routing and traffic information, is associated with random identifiers that continually reset to ensure the best possible experience and to improve Maps. Maps goes even further to obscure a user’s location on Apple servers when searching for a location through a process called “fuzzing.” Maps converts the precise location where the search originated to a less-exact one after 24 hours and does not retain a history of what has been searched or where a user has been.”

    It remains to be seen if Apple Maps completely matches Google Maps, but today’s announcements and the myriad improvements are a good start.

  • Google Street View Cars Are Now Tracking Air Pollution

    A handful of Google Street View cars are mapping more than roads.

    Google has teamed up with Aclima, a San Francisco-based company that designs and deploys environmental sensor networks, to equip a small portion of its fleet of Street View cars with mobile sensors. These sensors can track levels of nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, particulate matter, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

    The project has already kicked off in Denver, with three Street View Cars. According to Aclima, those cars drove over 750 hours and took in 150 million points of data. Both NASA and the EPA were part of the pilot study.

    “Environmental air quality is an issue that affects everyone, especially those living in big cities,” said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Program Manager for Google Earth Outreach. “This partnership with Aclima builds on our ongoing partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund, enabling us to take the next steps in our pilot project to use Street View and Google Maps as an environmental mapping platform. We hope this information will enable more people to be aware of how our cities live and breathe, and join the dialog on how to make improvements to air quality.”

    Aclima and Google aren’t new partners. In fact, the two have been working together to track air quality for years – inside 21 Google offices across the world.

    The next step is to equip Street View cars in San Francisco.

    You can check out some of Denver data here.

  • Google Celebrates World Oceans Day With Gorgeous Street View Imagery

    Google has managed to capture some truly amazing imagery for Street View over the years, and when I stop and think about how Street View didn’t even exist not all that long ago, it completely amazes me to see how far it’s come.

    In honor of World Oceans Day on June 8, Google is now sharing some new imagery of over 40 locations around the world thanks to a partnership with XL Catlin Seaview Survey, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, and the Chagos Conservation Trust.

    New locations include the American Samoa and Chagos Islands and underwater dives in Bali, the Bahamas and the Great Barrier Reef.

    “We hope the release of this imagery inspires people to learn more about this precious natural resource,” Google says in a blog post. “Mapping the ocean is key to preserving it. Each image in Google Maps is a GPS-located digital record of these underwater and coastal environments, which can be used as a baseline to monitor change over time. This comprehensive record of coral reefs showcases the beauty of these ecosystems and highlights the threats they face, such as the impact of increasing storms in the Great Barrier Reef and of rising water temperatures, factors causing the reefs to bleach white.”

    “With just one click, you can swim underwater alongside some of the most wondrous and exotic creatures, including a sea turtle in the Solomon Islands, humpback whales in the Cook Islands, great white sharks in Australia, and the huge and mysterious sunfish (Mola mola) in Bali,” it adds.

    Google also announced some additional partnerships to gain more underwater imagery including with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Reef Check, Blue Ventures, Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, and GUE’s Project Baseline.

    More on Google’s ocean-related efforts here.

    According to reports, Google will launch a Street View app in August,which will let users submit photo spheres to Maps, and will enable them to upload imagery directly from 360-degree cameras.

    Images via Google

  • How To Remove Your House From Google Street View

    Apparently it’s really easy to get your home blurred out on Google Maps Street View if you don’t like the idea of people looking at where you live. In fact, you can also let Google know you want other things, such as your face, car, license plate, or other objects, blurred if the company’s Street View cars captured them, and up them up for the world to see.

    These cars are driving around all the time, picking up all kinds of imagery from all over the world. As a result, they pick up a whole lot of imagery of people and private properties. Sometimes Google itself probably didn’t want the imagery on its service. Even more often, people who wish to remain private find Google is showcasing their homes.

    If you’re one of these people who finds Google’s photography to be an invasion of privacy, you can opt out of Street View simply by reporting an image and telling Google why you want it blurred.

    Earlier this year, Bloomberg Business reported on the process. You just find the image you want blurred, click to report a problem, and drag to move a rectangle over the area of concern, and fill out a form.

    Here’s where you click to report the problem:

    Then you’ll get a form that looks like this:

    According to Bloomberg, once you get something removed, it’s permanent.

    Speaking of Street View, Google announced last week that it has added imagery for the world’s oldest island.

    Images via Google Street View

  • Google Street View Now Lets You Tour Madagascar, The World’s Oldest Island

    Google announced that Street View has come to Madagascar, which is said to be the world’s oldest island.

    According to Guinness World Records, Madagascar became an island around 80-100 million years ago, when it split off from the Indian subcontinent. It has an area of 587,041 km² (226,657 miles²), and ranks as the world’s fourth largest island.

    “For almost 88 million years, the island of Madagascar has stood off the coast of Southeast Africa,” says Alex Starns, Street View Technical Program Manager at Google. “From the tropical humid and dry forests of the interior, home to ring-tailed lemurs, to the mangrove ecosystems along the coast, the island is home to some of the most unusual and delicate ecosystems on Earth. Now for the first time, through our Trekker Loan partnership with conservation organization Blue Ventures and the Department of Water and Forests: University of Antananarivo, the Madagascar Ministry of Culture, and Madagascar National Parks, you can take a virtual journey to Madagascar with Street View in Google Maps.”

    Take a look at some of the imagery:

    “Though beautiful scenery abounds in Madagascar, the country is also facing real challenges due to the increased demand placed on natural resources,” says While much of the plant and animal life has remained abundant over the centuries, this incredibly rare biodiversity is increasingly being fragmented by human activities. To shine a spotlight on ongoing conservation efforts, Blue Ventures collected imagery of some of the island’s most compelling scenery, including areas where effective conservation is increasingly critical to community livelihoods, climate change preparedness and for safeguarding biodiversity.”

    You can learn more about Google’s project here.

    Images via Google

  • You Can Now Embed Street View, Photo Sphere Imagery On Your Site

    Google announced that you can now embed Street View or PhotoSphere imagery on your website.

    This is thanks to a new Maps Embed API.

    The API was actually released a few months ago, enabling developers to generate HTML snippets that embed Google Maps within their sites. They’ve just added the ability to embed Street View and Photo Sphere imagery. The embeds utilize the same viewer technology as Street View on the new(ish) Google Maps.

    Product manager Ken Hoetmer says:

    Embedding a Street View or Photo Sphere works similarly to the Street View Service in Google Maps JavaScript API v3 – specify a lat/lng or panorama ID to pick your location, plus heading and pitch to determine direction of the scene and angle of the camera.

    Lastly, since this feature is part of the Google Maps Embed API, embedded Street View panoramas are also free of usage limits. So go forth and embed!

    More on the API here.

    Image via Twitter

  • Google Will Pay Damages Over Street View Cleavage

    Google is going to have to pay a Montreal woman a couple thousand dollars because Street View happened to capture her cleavage.

    A Canadian judge has ruled that Google owes Maria Pia Grillo $2,250 in damages (plus $159 in court fees) for causing her “shock and embarrassment”.

    As the story goes, Grillo was beside herself when she looked up her house on Google Street View in 2009 – only to find herself (and her cleavage) sitting on her front step. Though her face was blurred (as Google routinely does when people wind up in their Street View shots), Grillo claimed that her address and license plate number were visible, plus the contextual visual information (her house) made her clearly identifiable.

    Grillo actually demanded $45,000 for “emotional damage”, according to GigaOm – but the judge was having none of that.

    Google’s defense was that Grillo was in a public place. The judged rejected this argument, stating that people still have a right to privacy even when people can see them. T

    Then there’s this interesting little tidbit, via GigaOm:

    Privacy buffs may also be interested to note that the court drew a contrast between the law in the United States, and its emphasis on free expression, versus what prevails in Canada and Quebec. The judge also elected to adopt a “European approach” to deciding what should count as “personal information.”

    It’ll be interesting to see if this decision has Canadians flocking to fetch lawyers, claiming that Google embarrassed them with their traveling cameras. Google Street View has been the target of big legal action – from entire countries – but this is the first one I remember involving personal embarrassment.

    Although, Google is known to catch people in some rather compromising positions.

  • Google Adds Street View Imagery Of Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship

    Google continues to add Street View imagery to more places yet to be mapped. It’s had Street View-style indoor imagery for many places for quite some time, but now it’s doing cruise ships.

    Google and Royal Caribbean International have partnered on a virtual tour of the cruise line’s Allure of the Seas vessel – the world’s largest cruise ship. It consists of a reported 20,000 close-up shots and is part of Google’s Business View offering.

    It reportedly took Google eight days to get all the shots needed for the virtual tour. Images, according to USA Today, were taken with a basic DSLR camera with a fisheye lens and a panoramic head on a tripod.

    On Google Maps, the imagery can be found in Fort Lauderdale.

    In other Street View news, celebrities are asking Google to blur their homes.

    Images via Royal Caribbean/Google

  • Google Maps Lets You Browse Old Street View Imagery

    Google has updated Google Maps to enable users to look at historical imagery using Street View. Users can browse imagery dating bak to 2007.

    This shows you how:

    “Now with Street View, you can see a landmark’s growth from the ground up, like the Freedom Tower in New York City or the 2014 World Cup Stadium in Fortaleza, Brazil,” says Vinay Shet, Google Street View Product Manager. “This new feature can also serve as a digital timeline of recent history, like the reconstruction after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Japan. You can even experience different seasons and see what it would be like to cruise Italian roadways in both summer and winter.”

    “Forget going 88 mph in a DeLorean—you can stay where you are and use Google Maps to virtually explore the world as it is—and as it was,” Shet adds.

    The feature appears to still be in the process of rolling out.

    Images via Google

  • Google Adds Beautiful Street View Imagery Of Endangered Colorado River

    Google has partnered with American Rivers to bring imagery of the Colorado River to Street View. Take a look at some of the beautiful scenery:

    “For 6 million years, the Colorado River has flowed through the heart of the desert southwest, its waters slowly carving out a canyon so vast it can be seen from space—yet so remote it didn’t appear on early maps of the region,” says Chris Williams, Senior Vice President of Conservation for American Rivers, in a guest post on the Google Maps blog. “It wasn’t until 1869, when John Wesley Powell led a small exploration party on a rafting trip, that the natural wonders of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon came fully into view.”

    Part of the reason the new imagery exists is to raise awareness about the need for the river’s restoration and protection.

    “While you admire its grandeur, remember that the river is also at risk,” writes Williams. “One of the United States’ most important resources, the Colorado River provides drinking water for 36 million people from Denver to Los Angeles, supports a $26 billion recreation industry, and irrigates nearly 4 million acres of land that grow 15 percent of our nation’s crops. But it’s also one of the most endangered, dammed, diverted and plumbed rivers in the world, thanks to a century of management policies and practices that have promoted the use of Colorado River water at an unsustainable rate. By the time it reaches the Gulf of California in Mexico, the river is barely a trickle—a ghost of its once magnificent self. You can see evidence of the river’s decline In Street View, like the high water mark (showing 1950s driftwood on top of the rock), or sedimentation along the river’s edge down by Lake Mead.”

    In terms of simply adding to the beautiful imagery that Google has amassed for Street View, this will go nicely with the Grand Canyon imagery it released last year as the result of an early Trekker outing.

    Last week, Google also announced that it will soon have underwater imagery for Sydney, Australia, and debuted more Street View imagery from Hawaii.

    Images via Google

  • Google Gets More Hawaii Street View Imagery

    Back in 2012, Google added some stunning imagery from the Hawaiian Islands to Street View. Today, the company announced the addition of more.

    The new imagery comes as a result of the Trekker Loan Program Google announced last summer, which lets organizations borrow Google’s Trekker backpack camera device to capture imagery for Street View.

    The program’s first partner was the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB), which has been collecting Street View imagery of “many popular and special places across the islands of Hawaii (the Big Island) and Oahu” according to Google.

    “Hawaii is famous for its spectacular sandy beaches, like Hapunua Beach, but this tropical island paradise has much more to offer to all the outdoor adventurers out there,” writes Google’s Evan Rapoport in a blog post. “Hike through a volcanic crater along the Kilauea Iki Trail, learn about Native Hawaiian culture at the Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs, and take in the diverse flora at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.”

    Google says search interest in “Hawaii” has risen by 78 percent over the last 30 days.

    Google is also adding more underwater imagery to Street View for Sydney.

    Images via Google

  • Google Adding Underwater Street View Imagery For Sydney

    Not content to just photograph the world’s land for Street View, Google has been acquiring imagery from under the sea as well.

    Back in 2012, Google teamed up with The Catlin Seaview Survey to add underwater imagery from the world’s oceans. Last week, Google announced that it has new imagery from the partnership up, including from Isla Mujeres and Cancun.

    Now, Google announced that it is getting new imagery for Sydney, Australia from the Catlin Seaview Survey, which has partnered with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. They’re looking at marine life along Sydney’s Harbour and coastline, from Manly to Bronte, and utilizing Catlin Seaview Survey’s 360-degree panoramic SVII camera.

    “Street View imagery has been used for many purposes around the world, from town planning to artistic projects to disaster recovery,” says product manager Nabil Naghdy in a blog post. “It can also be very valuable for scientists looking to better understand a place – even when that place is underwater.”

    “We hope this new Street View imagery not only advances important scientific research, but also inspires people to learn more about the beautiful—and delicate—ecology of Sydney Harbour and our local beaches,” he says.

    Google Maps will get the new imagery later this year.

    Images via Google

  • Google Street View Gets More Imagery From Under The Sea

    Back in 2012, Google teamed up with The Catlin Seaview Survey to add underwater imagery from the world’s oceans to Street View.

    Google just announced that it has new imagery from the partnership up, including from Isla Mujeres and Cancun. On Google+, the company highlights these images of whale sharks at Isla Contoy and the Underwater Museum of Isla Mujeres.

    According to The Catlin Seaview Survey, the project is up to 19 countries with over a million images, and they’re “just getting started.”

    They premiered this video at the Economist World Ocean Summit in San Francisco:

    “Over the last 2 years we’ve worked with some fantastic partners including Catlin Group Limited, Google, The University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, The Galapagos National Park & Charles Darwin Foundation, The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco and the Prince Albert II Foundation,” it says.

    Earlier this week, Google announced the addition of Street View imagery for the Taj Mahal and other Indian monuments.

    Images via Google

  • Google Adds Street View Imagery To Russia, And For First Time Slovenia

    Google has announced the addition of Street View imagery to more towns, cities and sights in Russia, and to Slovenia for the first time.

    Slovenia makes the fifty-fifth country Google has launched Street View in.

    “In Russia, our drivers reached the far away corners of the world’s largest country,” says Google Street View program manager Carlos Reolid. “Users can take a walk around Yakutsk, the city with the greatest seasonal temperature swings on Earth (the lowest recorded winter temperature was −64.4°C with the highest summer peak hitting 38.4°C).”

    “In total, Street View cars covered 300,000 kilometers in Russia in 2013, an area housing almost 60 percent of the population,” he adds. “We mapped the biggest Russian island of Sakhalin and the Russkiy Bridge, the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge. While snapping the M52 highway, also known as Chuya Highway or Chuysky Trakt, Street View drivers met indigenous tribes.”

    In Slovenia, users will be able to find imagery for cities like Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje, Kranj, and Koper, as well as for Bohinj Lake and Piran.

    Google says it felt like this was a good time to add all this imagery as “the eyes of winter sports fans” turn to Russia. The Olympic Winter Games, of course, start this Friday in Sochi.

    Image via Google

  • Google Adds Ski Slope Imagery To Street View

    Google announced that it has gathered some new imagery of ski slopes for Street View using its Street View snowmobile.

    Google introduced the snowmobile back in 2010 when it gathered imagery from Vancouver and Whistler. It’s good to see it’s still getting some use.

    Google’s new imagery comes from ski resorts in Italy, France, Andorra and Spain.

    “From the western border between Italy and France in La Thuile to Siusi, Pusteria and Kronplatz in the eastern Dolomite Stations south of Austria, we are bringing online a total of eight Italian ski resorts. Take a look where the pros will head down the pistes at Bormio, which hosts a World Cup stop on December 29,” says Google’s Ulf Spitzer. “Val Thorens is one of the highest stations in Europe, while Les Gets opens up to the 600 kilometers of slopes on the Portes du Soleil.”

    “The Pyrenees boasts some great skiing and we feature Estació de Esqui de Masella,” adds Spitzer. “The small state of Andorra is home to a lot of skiing. We are bringing online two Alpine resorts Estació Esquí de Grandvalira and Estació Esquí de Vallnord. Together they cover more than 300 kilometers of slopes. You can also explore Nordic skiing facilities at Estació Esquí de fons de Naturlandia.”

    Earlier this week, Google announced that anyone can now create Street View imagery with a new feature for Views, which utilizes users’ photo spheres.

    Image: Google

  • Google Lets Anyone Create Street View Imagery For Google Maps

    Google has now enabled users to create their own Street View imagery to share and make visible to people using Google Maps. Now the amount of Street View imagery available is going to grow tremendously, offering a lot more to people looking to check out areas of the world they intend to travel to or just want to look at from afar.

    Users will no longer only see one version of what a location has to offer. Obviously a variety of factors can affect the scenery, and because of Google’s latest offering, users will have the opportunity to see a wider variety of conditions for any given place.

    “We are excited to see the different types of Street View experiences that everyone will contribute,” says Google product manager Evan Rapoport. “For example, this feature can now enable environmental non-profits to document and promote the beautiful places they strive to protect. It also opens up a new tool for photographers to showcase diversity in a specific location — by times of day, weather conditions or cultural events — in a way that Street View currently doesn’t cover.”

    The feature comes as part of the Views offering Google launched earlier this year, enabling users to make their “photo spheres” available via Google Maps.

    Views lets users showcase their work and plot photos on Google Maps. The new offering is a tool that stitches the photos together to create 360º Street View imagery. Users create their photo spheres, share them on Views, select the spheres from their profile, and the tool will connect them together. Once connected and published, others can navigate between them on Google Maps just like regular Street View. They can also be kept private if the user prefers. Google calls the stitched-together collections “constellations”.

    Constellations

    You can get a step-by-step walkthrough for creating constellations here. You may have to do some dragging and dropping and rotating of imagery. Google gives users a few tips, such as only connecting spheres that can be navigated in real life (this isn’t Inception). Don’t, for example, connect photo spheres that cross walls, buildings, etc. It’s also worth noting that removing a photos sphere from a constellation does not delete the sphere. More on photo sphere management here.

    “We hope this new feature will enable people to share and witness the beauty and breadth of our planet through Google Maps,” says Rapoport. “Whether you’re photographing exotic islands or your favorite neighborhood hangout, mountain peaks or city streets, historic castles or your own business, we’re thrilled to see the places you love coming to life on Google Maps.”

    The Street View experiences that you create are embeddable, so you can share them wherever you like.

    Google has been working hard to gain Street View imagery in more exotic (and practical) locations, employing various pieces of equipment (like trikes and Trekkers). Giving users the ability to contribute with their phones and cameras, however, is bound to increase Google’s photographic coverage in ways that even the search giant is unable to get on its own.

    Image: Google

  • Google Adds Street View Imagery From Airports, Transit Stations

    Google announced that it has added some new transit locations to Street View to make it easier to see where you’re going while you’re traveling.

    Specifically, they’ve added 16 international airports, ovder 50 train and subway stations and a cable car station in Hong Kong.

    “Now you can visit the check-in counter of your airline in Madrid, map out the way from baggage claim to the bus at Tokyo International Airport and check out where to pick up your rental car at Eindhoven Airport; you can even scope out your seat on an Emirates flight from Dubai!” says Google Street View program manager Ulf Spitzer. “Or, if you’re planning to take the train, navigate through Waterloo station so you can be one step ahead, whether you’re with a group of friends, family or a baby stroller.”

    Madrid Barajas

    Tokyo International Airport

    Tokyo

    Eindhoven Airport

    A380 at Dubai Airport

    More pics from that here.

    Waterloo Station

    Waterloo

    You can see all available locations around the world marked on an interactive map here.

    Images: Google Maps

  • Google Gets Awesome New Street View Imagery From National Parks

    Google’s Street View team has been working with the U.S. National Parks Service and Parks Canada to get new imagery on Google Maps for a plethora of interesting locations in the two countries.

    So far, Google has utilized its Street View cars, trikes and Trekker backpack system to add imagery for 44 locations. Here’s a look at some highlights.

    Sequoia National Park

    Google Street View

    Grand Teton National Park

    Teton

    Joshua Tree National Park

    Joshua Tree

    Banff National Park

    Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park

    Old faithful

    Lincoln Memorial At West Potomac Park

    Lincoln

    Mt. Rushmore National Memorial

    Google points to some additional highlights in a blog post.

    Last week, Google unveiled new Street View imagery from Venice.

  • Google Takes The Trekker To Venice For New Street View Imagery

    Google has taken its Trekker camera system to Venice to capture some new Street View imagery.

    Google Street View Operations Manager Daniele Rizzetto said, “It was impossible for us to collect images of Venice with a Street View car or trike—blame the picturesque canals and narrow cobbled walkways—but our team of backpackers took to the streets to give Google Maps a truly Shakespearean backdrop. And not just the streets—we also loaded the Trekker onto a boat and floated by the famous gondolas to give you the best experience of Venice short of being there.”

    “We covered a lot of ground—about 265 miles on foot and 114 miles by boat—capturing not only iconic landmarks but several hidden gems, such as the Synagogue of the first Jewish Ghetto, the Devil’s Bridge in Torcello island, a mask to scare the same Devil off the church of Santa Maria Formosa and the place where the typographer Manutius created the Italics font,” Rizzetto added. “Unfortunately, Street View can’t serve you a cicchetto (local appetizer) in a classic bacaro (a typical Venetian bar), though we can show you how to get there.”

    Piazza San Marco

    Synagogue of the first Jewish Ghetto

    The Devil’s Bridge

    Church of Santa Maria Formosa

    Birthplace of the Italic Font

    Throughout the year, the Trekker has been used to capture imagery from places like the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, Dead City (from Skyfall) and Mt. Fuji.

    Google has also added art from the Museo Correr, Museo del Vetro and Ca’ Pesaro to the Google Cultural Institute.

    Images: Google