Explore the world with Street View, now on all seven continents
We introduced Street View back in May 2007, enabling people to explore street-level imagery in five U.S. cities. We were excited to share a virtual reflection of the real world to enable armchair exploration. Since then, we’ve expanded our 360-degree panoramic views to many more places, allowing you to check out a restaurant before dining there, to explore a neighborhood before moving there and to find landmarks along the route of your driving directions.
Three years later, we’re happy to announce that you can now explore Street View imagery on all seven continents, with the addition today of Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica. You can now see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica.
We often consider Street View to be the last zoom layer on the map, and a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person—whether you’re checking out a coffee shop across town or planning a vacation across the globe. We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas.
For example, as summer winds down here in Mountain View, Calif., the famous beaches of Copacabana, Brazil are an enticing virtual travel destination.
The Ring of Kerry in Ireland, with its picturesque rolling landscape, is another favorite new place in Street View.
Speaking of travel, my wife BethEllyn and I embarked on the Minerva for an expedition to Antarctica in late January. We enjoyed stunning vistas, and I found that any minute not spent on deck was a spectacular viewmissed. Fortunately, we’d planned to take some Street View photos, and are now able to share with you the incredible visuals from Half Moon Island, Antarctica.
Here is a group of Chinstrap penguins we saw on the island.
And this is one of my favorite views. You can see part of the crescent shape that gives the island its name.
I’m very proud of the worldwide Street View team and thrilled that everyone can now see places from all seven continents, including the amazing landscapes and natural beauty I saw in Antarctica, through the street-level images in Google Maps and Google Earth. To see more highlights from Street View around the world, visit theStreet View gallery and start exploring!
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps
Google Street View 登陆巴西，爱尔兰还有……南极洲！
Google 今天宣布 Street View 正式在巴西，爱尔兰以及南极洲上线，这样这项 Google 2007年5月开始提供的全景街景服务已经覆盖了全部七个大陆。
巴西和爱尔兰的街景上线我们并不感到意外，毕竟这两个国家的拍摄工作我们早有所耳闻，但是南极洲这个实在有些超出我们的想象力了，哪里应该根本没有街道这个东西吧？ CourierPost 报道说 Google 地理团队的 Brian McLendon 趁游轮停在 Half Moon Island 附近时拍摄了10张被冰雪覆盖的山峰以及帽带企鹅的全景照片，实在是太神奇了。不过我还没有在 Google Maps 上找到这些区域，如果你找到了，欢迎在留言中把连接告诉我们。
via guardian
2010/9/30 参考消息 <go2group@gmail.com>Google maps final corner of the planet as it launches Street View for Antarctica, Brazil and Ireland
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via The Guardian World News by Josh Halliday on 9/30/10
Google maps final corner of the planet as it launches Street View for Antarctica, Brazil and Ireland
Gallery: Google Street View around the worldA big bone of contention in many countries, Google's Street View mapping service today goes live in Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica, meaning Street View now has a presence in all seven continents.
Launched in May 2007 in five US cities, the panoramic imaging service has gone on to map cities on every corner of the planet, attracting ire and admiration along the way.
Brian McClendon, vice-president of engineering at Google Earth and Maps, wrote on the company's blog: "We often consider Street View to be the last zoom layer on the map, and a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person – whether you're checking out a coffee shop across town or planning a vacation across the globe. We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas."
Speaking to the Guardian, Ed Parsons, Google's geospatial technologist – "When I joined Google, I was fortunate to be asked what I wanted to be known as" – said the latest move was "hugely significant" and that the service would continue to expand. "This allows you to visit places you don't normally," Parsons said. "One of the challenges we wanted to crack is to go to these remote places, and one of geo team at Google went to Antarctica so he took some kit and took some imagery. It's called Street View, but there aren't many streets in Antarctica!
"This allows people to understand the contrast between New York Times Square and being on the edge of a glacier looking at penguins."
Much has changed in the three years since Google launched Street View. Privacy was not nearly as contentious in the five US cities – New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver – as it currently is in Germany, and the camera resolution wasn't technically as good. On both these scores, Parsons says, Google has continued to innovate: "With each new release the imagery is of a higher quality and there are more tools to protect privacy, the technology evolves and it's easier to navigate."
The company's exploration to the southernmost continent, Antarctica, also marks the company's visit to a continent where it isn't facing – or has faced – legal proceedings. Since launch, Street View has attracted legal complaints from private citizens, criminal investigations from authorities, and close scrutiny by alarmed governments.
Parson said: "One of the things that caused us surprise was how different the various nations' view of privacy were. So we had to change the way we operate to accommodate that. Germany is an extreme example, but no two countries are ever the same and we built those privacy considerations [for Germany].
"In many ways new tech is always a little concerning to people. Like caller ID on [mobile] phones – that was concerning when it was a new thing, now it's accepted and agreed to be a useful feature. You have to draw a contrast between how many people use and the minority that are relatively loud. For us, it's about enhancing the use of Google Maps and we know that that increases by 20% at least when Street View functionality is added, making it the most popular web-mapping site on the planet."
The new images will go live on Google Street View over the next 24 hours.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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