Google launched a new map feature today for San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas, Denver and New York. It's called Street View.
And it rocks pretty darn hard. It's a souped up version of the now defunct A9 project that was called Blockview. It's up and live as of this afternoon. The announcement was made today at the Where 2.0.
In those four cities, the 3D views are available along major streets and points of interest. Google worked on portion of this with Immersive Media to produce the views. Some of this, however was done with Google Earth's own technologies. San Francisco and South Bay, for example are at very high resolutions and done completely by the Google folks.
Why It's Called Street View
For now, the Google experience only allows you to move along at street level, thus the name. But the full experience of looking up and around can be found at the Immersive Media site.
The image to the right links to this google Street View map along South Las Vegas Boulevard. It's right in front of my favorite hotel, The Bellagio. This is a truly interactive 3D experience. You can change your angle of view and move along the street while maintaining that angle. If you head north in my map example, you can actually turn into the Bellagio driveway and go right up to the valet entrance.
The word in the tech industry is that they've got a whole bunch of other cities already mapped, so look for some updates quick on the heals of this announcement. Talk about Localism!
The consumer experience in these cities has been greatly enriched today. Go check it out for yourself. You can bet this interactive geotagging is only going to become more common.
Oh... and there's already a goofy youtube video from Google.
62 Comments on Google World Domination Now Playing In 3D
MAY
30
2007
Oh man, this is great! Especially when you don't know the area. You can get the street map and familiarize yourself with the surroundings. I just found the club I'm playing at the end of June in San Francisco. Now at least I know what the area looks like.
Sally... I can't imagine the camera crews for this aren't pulling for Oahu to be their next destination.
Leigh... you can count on that.
Justin... Can it be used for Real Estate? Oh yeah. See this post. We've been Google map fans at RES for a long time. Our users will be able to copy and paste the Street View URL into their Location field and link directly to the Street View images. For some localism Shows, it will rock.
Randy... I can only think that it will help anyone with evil intentions. That's a problem faced with all technology. It can be used for good and evil. So, let's use it for good. :)
would you be able to help a tech challenged one figure out how to put either screen shots or videos onto our websites or blogs from this??? I would LOVE to do that!
Another great feature, the thing I like about google is they test in before they go everywhere. Can't wait for it to come to Ann Arbor !! Since they have a ad word division here, maybe it will be soon.
Oooooohh! ! ! Neat. I think. My first thought was precisely what Randy said.
Pretty soon there iwll be no need to tourists to travel. They can just sit at their computer and "walk the streets of a city".
That won't catch a fish, but I'm sure that's being worked on too.
I have to admit that it's all a bit too vicarious for me.
Hey - since you're a YouTuber, you might want to check this out... There's a video company that's recruitingYouTubers and if they like your stuff, (and they should) they will actually pay you when your video gets a hit.Here's their ink...www.flownetworkproductions.com/videorevenue.htm. It's about time the people who makethe videos get some of the money instead of it all going to YouTube!
Lenn... I think this will end up being like paper and computers. I worked for Standard Register many years ago and the folks there were so worried that the computer was going to do away with paper. The computer has multiplied paper use. I can see the same thing happening with travel. It may make people go places they never would have gone to before. Like Hurricane, WV. :)
BJ... I'm not sure any of my videos would qet the hits needed to make more than enough money to buy some coffee. Except for the video of my son in Say Firetruck
Diane, Susan and Brian... Google is a force to be reckoned with.
Google does it again. This is pretty neat. Now we can travel and see the world from in front of our computer screens. This will be great for planning trips and getting to know areas better before a relocation trip.
Oh My Gosh! I can see my office! I can see my camera store next door! I can see my smiling face behind the drivers seat in my car! I can see my roots! :) just kidding - this is my natural color.
Ok, now that was fun. I just kept on going on the roads out of Denver and am truly surprised how far I could go on the main roads they filmed. I think I have an RES show I can use this right away to try it out. I will let you know if I do, it may be tomorrow though - busy day today. There was one slight downside - it seemed to be filmed here on a cloudy day so our beautiful views to show-off were just so-so. From a real estate perspective and using it as a sales/relocation tool, I hope they re-film on a clear morning in the near future.
looks amazing, but it must take a long time take and to log all the photographs. Are they planning on rolling this out to other cities? is there a time frame?
Steve ~ we can now go online and refuse to take listings if they don't have "Google Curb Appeal!" ;)
I found it a little squirrelly though, one click and I found myself in Brazil! Now if Google can do that physically I'm all over it! Time travel, breakfast in Brazil, lunch at that sweet little Cafe in Paris, than than home in the evening to show a prop! Cool, go Google!
It has wigged out on me a few times too. Have attempted to show my office as well but it keeps freezing. I have to go too or I am going to be late as well.
Nice. I suppose it will be awhile before they have MN on line. Not sure they have found us yet and oh yes there is the thing about the camera's freezing.
The other night I was following our route to June Lake on the satellite view. We were just in awe, again, with that. Now they are taking it to the next level. It is going to be awesome.
This is very cool and a little bit Big Brother if you get the drift. They will be employing a lot of camera people in the years to come. There's lots of America to cover! Sherry
With so much new construction, Las Vegas will be a challenging city for Google to keep up with. Still, I'm sure if I think about it there are already some great uses for this that will provide some impressive points of differentiation from other agents.
Begins to remind me of the Denzel movie Deja Vu (probably why they call it Deja Vu)
Tie this in with MS Surface - and bring the video up to real time...well that is next year.
Part of what is interesting in watching (and sometimes investing in) companies like Google is that they drive innovation. Microsoft had gotten out of the habit - I will be glad to welcome them back to the arena.
Hi Jeff,
Stumbled upon this post from a while ago. As you know, the folks at Google finally released the API this past Friday 3/28/08 and we had it on Kevin's site by Monday morning working feverishly over the weekend. Take a look..it's way cool!
http://www.kevintomlinson.com/condo-map.php
Brad will be posting on this major accomplishment later tonight on AR after catching his breathe. Press release is already out there churning away. http://www.prweb.com/releases/miami-beach/streetview/prweb821884.htm
Bobby Carroll - Real Estate Marketing (Dakno Marketing)
Helping businesses grow by effectively using evocative Internet-based services. I am the President of Zeek Interactive and Founder of RealEstateShows.com.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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Oh man, this is great! Especially when you don't know the area. You can get the street map and familiarize yourself with the surroundings. I just found the club I'm playing at the end of June in San Francisco. Now at least I know what the area looks like.
Thanks for the info, Jeff.