Google’s Street View feature, founded in their Maps service, is turning 15 years old today and, to mark the birthday, they’ve announced a number of new features coming down the tracks to enhance the functionality of the handy service.
Along with this, they’ve also announced Irish-specific data highlighting the most visited places of interest along with the most visited museums on Street View in Ireland. Here’s a top 5 list for each:
Historical Street View Imagery Comes to Mobile
Starting today on Android and iOS globally, Google are rolling out their, up to now, desktop-only ‘historical Street View Imagery’ feature. Here’s how it works:
When you’re viewing Street View imagery of a place, tap anywhere on the photo to see information about the location. Then tap “See more dates” to see the historical imagery we’ve published of that place, dating back to when Street View launched in 2007. Browse each of the images to see a digital time capsule that shows how a place has changed.
New Street View Camera System
From the back of a camel in the Arabian desert to a snowmobile zipping through the Arctic, Google have definitely gotten more creative with the ways they’ve used Street View cameras to capture imagery. In addition to their Street View car and trekker, they’re now piloting a new camera that will fully roll out next year to help the service collect high-quality images in more places.
This new camera takes all the power, resolution and processing capabilities that they’ve previously housed in an entire Street View car, and shrinks it down into an ultra-transportable camera system that’s much more manageable when trying to capture those hard to reach places. You can read more about today’s announcements at Google’s official blog post here.
