Google Adds Famous Locations To Street View

Google has again expanded its Street View image collection of photographs from around the world, this time with spectacular new images of famous destinations in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the United States and Canada.

The images are being provided to offer more information to viewers as they plan vacations or simply explore the world from their web browsers, according to a 13 June post by Street View programme manager Deanna Yick on the Google Lat Long Blog.

Historic landmarks

“Today we’re adding more than 1,000 locations around the world to Google Maps, making it more comprehensive and useful for you,” wrote Yick. “From historical landmarks to sports stadiums, these panoramic photos available via Street View can help you ease into vacation mode with just a few simple clicks.”

For armchair travellers of the United States, there are new images of some of the US’ historic landmarks, including The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, where one of America’s greatest authors and his family lived from 1874 to 1891.

Also included in the expanded collections are images of the Isaac Bell House in Newport, Rhode Island, which was built in 1883 for the famous cotton broker and investor; and the Cape Henry Lighthouse in Virginia, which has guarded the Chesapeake Bay since 1792, wrote Yick.

In Canada, Street View explorers who love the theater arts can now see images of The Shaw Festival Theatre, Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall, Roy Thomson Hall and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, home of the Canadian Opera Company, wrote Yick.

If a trip to Singapore is what you seek, online visitors can now explore the city’s Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade and Fullerton Heritage Promenade to view the sights, as well as dive into a collection of detailed images at the Singapore Zoo.

The new European destinations now included in Street View are images of the stunning Seville Cathedral in Spain (top of this story), as well as photos of the serene canals of Copenhagen, Denmark, wrote Yick.

Brazilian destinations

Viewers interested in destinations in Brazil can now virtually visit that country’s Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, which is the most visited Marian shrine in the world, according to Yick’s post. Also viewable now is Vila Belmiro stadium, which is the home to Santos Soccer Club and of past and present soccer stars, Pele and Neymar, she wrote.

In Mexico City, viewers can now see images of Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park), a natural oasis in the middle of the city, while in Chile, virtual visitors can see images of Valle Nevada Resort, one Chile’s hottest ski resorts just a few miles outside Santiago (pictured above), wrote Yick.

Google’s Street View image collection has been growing regularly since its debut in 2007. In March, Street View added spectacular images of the world’s tallest mountain peaks, including Everest and Kilimanjaro, to its ever-expanding collection of photos from destinations around the globe.

Also in March, a Street View crew collected and released a collection of images of the Japanese town of Namie-machi.

The photos were taken to document the evacuated town two years after radiation leaked from a nearby nuclear power plant following the 11 March, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan.

In August 2012, images were posted from Cambridge Bay in Canada’s far north, and in November 2012, Google added photographs of some of the world’s most spectacular ski resorts.

Street View has also gathered images of the Grand Canyon and its trails and natural wonders using a special wearable backpack with a camera system on top, which allowed team members to traverse the Grand Canyon and capture 360-degree images of the terrain.

Underwater panoramas

In September 2012, Street View added its first-ever underwater panoramic images, bringing in colorful and beautiful photographs of underwater reefs in Australia, Hawaii and the Philippines.

The images came from the Catlin Seaview Survey, which is conducting scientific expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea in Australia.

Meanwhile, the Street View programme has come under scrutiny both in the United States and in Europe after it was learned that Google was gathering the information street-by-street between 2007 and 2010, according to earlier eWEEK reports.

The company was hit with an $189,167 (£120,000) fine in Germany in April 2013 for collecting user data without fully disclosing the practice as Google Street View vehicles combed German streets collecting information for its maps back from 2007 to 2010.

Also in April, Google announced that its Street View imaging programme is now operating in 50 nations around the world.

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Originally published on eWeek.