Toyota are Filling in the Street View Blanks

Toyoto has come up with one of the best Google Maps based promotional campaigns yet. To help promote the car the company are driving an IQ around with a 360 degree panoramic camera rig strapped to the roof. They are then capturing Street View images and filling in all the blanks on Google Maps.

The campaign, currently running in Belgium, allows anyone to report a street that doesn't have Street View on the Toyota IQ - Street View Google Map. The Toyota IQ then travels to the street, captures the Street View images and adds them to the map.


The purple map markers with white dots indicate the streets that the Toyota IQ has visited. If you click on a marker you can then visit the street using the Toyota custom Street Views.

Friday Fun with Google Maps

Four Seasons in One Day

I came across this satellite view on Google Maps this week. You can clearly see that some of the images have been captured at different times. I think the effect is rather nice.


One of my favourite maps from the last few months is the Nature Valley Trail View. Nature Valley Trail View provides custom Street View tours of nature trails. This morning I noticed that the site has expanded its coverage from the Grand Canyon to also include a number of virtual trail tours in Yellowstone Park and the Great Smokies.


Google Sightseeing has been busy finding some of the great views in the new Israel and Ukraine Street View images. This image shows the World Heritage site, Kiev's Monastery of the Caves.

How a Trails Map Should be Made

The Nature Valley Trail View is a beautiful map of trails in the Grand Canyon.

The map includes a number of trails, each of which can be experienced with a glorious animated custom Street View tour. If you click on the menu link you can select any of the trails and then virtually walk the trail with custom Street Views of the whole trail.

Each tour includes an option to animate a walk on the trail, so you can just sit back and watch as you walk the trail with custom Street Views. Below the Street View is an altitude graph and a compass rose is also provided.



The Nature Valley Trail View Grand is a great example of what can be achieved with the Google Maps API. I'd almost go as far as to say it nearly matches the beauty of the Grand Canyon itself.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

University of Twente Custom Street Views

The University of Twente is building a campus tour using the Custom Street View option in the Google Maps API.

The tour seems to still be a work in progress but already features some great custom Street Views of the 'Little Tower of Drienerlo' (pictured) and some Street Views that go inside the campus buildings.

The 'Little Tower of Drienerlo' is an art work by Wim T. Schippers which depicts the top of a church tower, giving the impression that a church lies at the bottom of the university pond.

_________________

Side-by-Side Street View Comparisons

I missed this impressive use of custom Street Views by the New York Times when it was published back in May. However it is so good that it is worth posting even this long after the event.

Panoramas of Joplin Before and After the Tornado uses Google Map Street Views of Joplin side by side with panoramas taken after the Joplin tornado hit.

A number of newspapers have created clever visualisations of the damage caused by natural disasters by using before and after satellite imagery. For example both ABC News and The NYT published comparisons of satellite imagery of Japan before and after this year's earthquake.



The New York Times however are the first newspaper to create a before and after visualisation using Street View. The paper took a number of 360 degree photos of areas of Joplin after the May tornado. They then used the Custom Street View functionality in the Google Maps API to create Street Views from their panoramas.

The custom panoramas have been placed side-by-side with the Google Maps Street Views from the same location. As you pan the Street View the custom panorama moves to show exactly the same view, to show the devastation caused by the earthquake.

Via: Google Maps for Journalists

_________________

Where Street View Fears to Tread

There are still quite a lot of gaps in Street View's coverage around the world. Luckily a number of other providers have created their own Google Maps based Street View applications to try and plug these gaps.

China - with City8

In China City8 have created extensive interactive 360 degree panoramas in 45 of the country's biggest cities.

MapJack

As well as providing Street View type imagery in the USA, Canada, Singapore and Sweden Mapjack has also ventured where Google Street View has so far feared to tread. MapJack has great coverage in Malaysia, Thailand and Puerto Rico.

Norc

Norc has great coverage in central and eastern Europe, including in Poland and Austria, where Google's Street View cars have yet to drive.

________________

Grand Theft Auto IV in Street View

Grand Theft Auto IV - Custom Street View

I think this might just be one of the most awesome things I've seen ever. This Google Map lets you explore the whole of Liberty City, from Grand Theft Auto IV, in Street View.

GTA4.net have created custom Street Views of the whole of Liberty City and added them to this Google Map. The map shows all the important locations in the game, such as health & weapon pick-up points and all the important mission starting points.

However, once you enter Street View, you will forget about all that and just spend all your time wandering the streets of Liberty City through the amazing custom Street Views of the game.



The Street View option in this Liberty City map works just as it does on Google Maps. Drop the pegman icon anywhere on the map and you can start exploring the game in Street View. You can click on the arrows to navigate around the city and you can use the mini inset map to keep track of your position in the city.

I can't begin to think how many hours went into capturing the imagery for these custom Street Views and then lovingly mapping it all with the Google Maps API. Just ... wow!
_________________

2012 London Olympics Street View

Olympics Street View

I strongly suspect that when the Olympics Park for the 2012 London Olympics opens next year the Google Street View trike will be one of the first visitors.

However at the moment there is no Street View available for the site of next year's Olympics. I therefore decided today to create my own Street View map of the Olympics construction site in east London.

I have to apologise for the poor quality of the photography. I created the Street View panoramas for this map using a free Android app from 360 VTcreator, which, whilst it is a brilliant free app, doesn't really create photographs of a high enough definition for Street View. I advise you not to zoom in!

_________________

German DIY Street View

DIY-Street View

What do you do if Google Maps hasn't got Street View imagery for your neighbourhood and has also announced that they will no longer be collecting new Street View data in your country?

If you are Jan Martin the answer is easy - you go out and shoot your own panoramic images. You then use the Custom Street View function of the Google Maps API and you create your own Street View map.

Jan has taken a number of panoramic panoramas around his home town of Langen and has used Google Maps to provide a virtual tour. Jan's map works almost exactly the same as Google Maps. The blue lines on the map show where custom Street View imagery is available. If you click on a blue line (don't drag the pegman icon) you can enter the Street View.

You can read more about the project on Jan's blog DIY-Street View

_________________

Custom Street Views Brings You Shop View

118 218

French online directory 118 218 has started adding custom Street Views to its Google Maps of shops.

With custom Street Views it is possible to seamlessly add your own panoramic images to Street View with links from Google's own Street View imagery. 118 218 has started adding panoramic 360 degree imagery from inside shops.

Where the custom Street Views are available a small red door icon is added to the Google Street View of the exterior of the shop. Clicking on the icon will take you to the interior panorama.

Currently you can view custom Street Views for the florist Daniel Guittat, the restaurant La maison Géorgienne and the institut de beaute Shyms Nail.

Via: Le blog officiel de Google France

Other Custom Street View Sites

• Kerken Kijken met Street View
• Sherubtse College Campus Map and Virtual Tour
• Bonne Annee 2011

________________