Google Adds "Street-View" Feature to Maps

Google has added, and will soon officially announce, “Street-View” for their Google Maps online mapping application.  Essentially, using in-house data as well as data from Immersive Media, Google is adding 360-degree, street-level navigational photography for certain cities within Google Maps.  The photography is divided into what seems to be small increments of about 20-feet or so*.)  For example, while in Street-View mode, you can drag the camera from left-to-right and back again to see buildings/landmarks/etc. around you.  (There’s no up or down navigation but we can’t really see how that would be very beneficial to anyone…with the exception of used chewing gum collectors.)

In the example image above, not only can you see crazy Googlers about to drive on a sidewalk and run over some defenseless woman in their mighty Google-van, you can click on the navigational arrows on the center of the screen to take a casual stroll and familiarize yourself with the street on which you might soon be travelling.  When crossing an interesection, left and right navigation is automatically added onto the screen.

The O’Reilly Radar also points out another unique feature to this new Maps implementation: smoothing transitions to the navigational photos.  For instance, if you were to click on one of the arrows to proceed down the street, you’d notice a smooth fade into the next photo instead of an ordinary image load.  That’s the Google we know and love.

* I have no idea how far apart these photos are.  If you have a better guess, let us know.

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