Book a Flight with Street View

The Lufthansa airline has created a clever booking form that allows users to click on a map to input the destination of a flight.



As well as auto-filling the booking form with the selected destination a click on the map also displays a Google Maps Street View of the chosen destination. For example, if a user clicks on London a Street View of the Houses of Parliament is displayed to help entice the customer to book a trip to the UK.



Lufthansa: Street View Live



Via: Google Geo Developers Blog



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Climbing the Matterhorn with Street View

Street View Funny noticed today that the ski runs around Zermatt, Switzerland now have Street View coverage on Google Maps. The new imagery includes this great view of the Matterhorn, above.



The Zermatt images were collected by the Street View snow mobile, which was first used to capture imagery for the 2011 Winter Olympics in Canada.



Skiing in Zermatt is split up into four areas; Sunnegga, Gornergrat, Klein Matterhorn and Schwarzsee. It appears to me that all four main skiing areas have been covered in this new Street View release from Google.





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The Iraq Museum on Street View

Iraq’s National Museum in Baghdad is now on Street View.



Google LatLong has a nice post on how Google collected the imagery for this latest addition to Google Maps, which included inventing the 'Street View Trolley'.



As well as collecting Street Views of the interior of the museum Google also managed to capture close-up 360-degree views of individual artifacts, a selection of which can be seen on the Antiquities page of the Iraq Museum website.



A neat addition to the Street View controls on Google Maps allows allows the user to navigate between the 1st and 2nd floor of the museum. So Street View now goes upstairs as well as to Iraq!



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Street View's Hot or Not

MIT's Place Pulse project is a crowd-sourced experiment examining people's perceptions of different urban environments.



The project presents two Street View images from Google Maps and asks users to vote for which place looks more 'unique', 'safer' or 'upper class'.



As well as contributing to the research by answering the questions you can view the results and view which of the Street Views appear most or least safe, unique or upper-class.



Via: SmartPlanet Hat-tip: Street View Funny



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After the Bomb - Hiroshima Panoramas

360Cities has posted five amazing and shocking 360 degree panoramas of Hiroshima in Japan, taken just six months after the USA dropped an atomic bomb on the city.



Panning the photos around 360 degrees and viewing the total destruction as far as you can see powerfully conveys the effect that the bomb had on the city. According to Wikipedia '4.7 square miles (12 km2) of the city were destroyed (and) Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged.'







The panorama taken by Shigeo Hayashi clearly shows what is now the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Last week Google released imagery of the Peace Memorial that allows you to view the interior of the memorial on Google Maps Street View.



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Guess a Street View

Locatestreet is a Street View guessing game.

The premise of the game is simple. Locatestreet places the player in a random location using Google Maps Street View. The player then has to determine his or her location.

Along the way, the player can use helpful clues, examine random Wikipedia articles relevant to the places they virtually visit and share their favorite random locations with other users.

It is currently possible to play in the United States and Mexico, and other countries will be added in the coming days and weeks.

Locatestreet

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New Street View in Japan

The Street View trike has been very busy in Japan. A lot of beautiful new off-road imagery has been added to Google Maps in Japan.

The imagery includes new Street Views of temples, golf course and theme parks. I've spent a little time this afternoon on a virtual tour of Japanese tourist locations and managed to put together this little collection of Street Views.

I'm sure I've missed a lot of the imagery captured by the Street View trike in Japan ... tell me what I've missed in the comments.

Street View Japan

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Shhh. ...Street View Arrives in Belgium

There seems to be a little error in Google Maps that shows two Street View images in one street in Belgium.

This means that a few houses in Strijphout Straat in Genk are lucky enough to have their homes featured on Google Maps. The rest of Belgium will just have to wait for the official release of Street View in their country. The fact that Google already seems to have gathered the imagery means that they probably won't have to wait too long.

Back in July of last year Google made a similar error in the Street View imagery for the town of Rijssen in the Netherlands. Instead of showing the Dutch town some of the imagery actually showed the German town of Marl. That error also displayed some Street View in a country before the official release.


Hat-tip: Google Earth Blog

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Naming Cape Town with Google Maps

Name Your Hood is an interesting crowd-sourced attempt to name the various districts of Cape Town, South Africa.

Using Name Your Hood you can take a virtual stroll through Cape Town. Blue markers show the names of various stores that are shown in the Street View. If you click on a marker you can visit the store's website.

You can also have a go at naming a Cape Town neighborhood. Just click on one of the defined districts on the Google Map of Cape Town and enter your creative name for the area. All the submitted hood names will then be put before a panel of architects, planners, musicians, local celebrities, city officials and historians.

The panel will create a shortlist of the best names chosen by each community. From this shortlist the best name for each neighbourhood will then be decided by public vote.

Name Your Hood

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Street View Arrives in Monaco

Google Maps has added Street View for the principality of Monaco. As well as this new Street View imagery for Monaco the Street View trike has been busy in Switzerland.

As the second smallest country in the world (after Vatican City) it probably didn't take the Street View car too long to capture the latest imagery on Google Maps. Despite its size, however, Monaco has a lot of interesting sights.

Now you can follow the route of the Monaco Grand Prix in glorious panoramic Street View. If cars aren't your thing then you can take a virtual stroll around Monaco's quays and ogle at all the expensive yachts.



In Switzerland the Street View trike has visited the inside of Château Chillon.



It has also invaded the Three Castles of Bellinzona.



It then went on to capture Château Gruyères.



Via: Le blog officiel de Google France, Zorgloob and Street View Funny

Street View Lands in the Isle of Man

Peel Castle, Isle of Map

Google Street View has now been launched on the Isle of Man and Jersey.

Updated imagery has also been added in thirteen countries; Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Google say that this is their biggest update to Street View yet.


Mont Orgueil, Jersey

Hat-tip: Google Sightseeing & Street View Funny & Google LatLong

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Random Google Street View Generators

Robot Flâneur

Robot Flâneur is a random Street View generator. You can choose to select from a number of cities around the world and sit back and watch as Robot Flâneur presents a succession of random Street Views from Google Maps.

The application comes with a number of options. You can view the app in full-screen, you can view a small map showing the location of the Street View or you can pause the app or fast forward to the next image.

StraatBlik

Straatblik generates a random Street View from Google Maps' imagery in the Netherlands. To move to the next random view just press 'Volgende'.

My first random find was what looks like the world's largest spinning top. What can you find?

MapCrunch - Random Street View

Do you feel lucky?

This fun Google Maps application displays a random Street View image from anywhere in the world. To view a random image from Street View all you have to do is press the 'Go' button.

If you want to narrow down the randomness of the image you can select to view only Street View imagery from particular countries. Each country with Street View imagery has its own button and each can be set to on or off.

Google Street View Roulette

Street View Funny, the Street View Gallery website, created this Street View randomiser a while back now. Street View roulette is restricted to imagery from the UK. To play Street View Roulette just press the 'Random Google Street View' button.

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Minecraft in Street View

MineCraft Köttdisken

Hot on the heels of the amazing GTA IV Street View map comes this Minecraft Google Map.

Admittedly this map isn't quite in the same league, containing just the two custom Street Views (compared to the over 80,000 Street Views in the GTA map), but it does help to show the possibilities of mapping game worlds with the Google Maps API.

MineCraft Köttdisken uses the Google Maps API to display the Middle Earth Minecraft world. As well as the two panoramas, created using the custum Street View function, you can also turn on map markers to show signposts and view the map in a number of different styles.

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Add Graffiti to Google Maps Street View

Paint Your Street

Have you ever wanted to spray your tag on the side of the White House or Buckingham Palace?

Well now you can.

At least you can virtually.

Paint Your Street lets you add graffiti to Google Maps Street View. Anywhere that has Street View coverage can now be virtually daubed with your very own tag.

Just log-in with your Facebook account, find your location on Google Maps and tag away to your heart's content. If you want to you can also browse other users' creations by most popular, most recent or just view your friends' artwork.

Hat-tip: @geoparadigm

Red Bull Street View Art

Red Bull are using Google Maps and Google Street View to present a crowd-sourced map of street art from around the world.

Using the map you can search for graffiti directly from the map and click on the map markers to view a Street View image of the art. The site includes quick links to the 'most viewed' and the 'latest additions' to the map. There are also quick links to works by popular graffiti artists such as Banksy and Keith Haring.

Adding your own finds to the map is very easy. It just involves finding the right location on the map and dragging the Street View to grab the best shot of the street art that you wish to submit.

Shelter Housebling - World Cup Special

UK housing charity, Shelter produced a special World Cup edition of their Christmas Street View House Decoration application last year. The World Cup may have finished a long time ago but the application is still working.

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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

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Street View in 3D

StreetView Explorer

StreetView Explorer is a very clever desktop application that lets you explore Google Maps Street View in a more 3d like environment. The application allows you to walk around Street View and explore the world as if you really were Pegman.

The video above gives a good overview of the StreetView Explorer experience. It reminds me a little of Microsoft's Street Slide experiment (video below) without the fixed side-on 2d view.



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Road Races in Street View

Swiss Post - Running View

UbiLabs has developed a very nice Google Maps based application for Swiss Post that allows you to view upcoming road races with Street View. Currently you can preview the Grand-Prix von Bern, the Lausanne Marathon and the Schweizer Frauenlauf Bern with Running View.

For each race it is possible to preview the route in Google Street View. All you need to do is press 'play' and you can view an animation of the route using Google Street View images. You can pause and adjust the speed of the Street View animation of the route at any time.

A Google Map with a rotating marker gives you an overview of the current position and an elevation chart shows the elevation at each point of the track.

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Driving Directions with Street View

Animated Route Maps

If you have a 'Where Are We' page on your website you should consider adding an animated route map from Map Channels. This handy application lets you create an animated directions map using Street View and Bing's Bird's Eye View.

To create an embedable map you just need to enter a starting point and a destination. Map Channels Animated Route Map will then create the code for you to add to your website. When your users press play they can follow the route in Street View and Google Maps.

The application comes with a number of customisation settings so you can change the width and height of your map. You can also change the speed settings for the animation and choose which map types you wish to display.

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Instant Search for Street View

Instant Street Viewer

Ever since Google started Instant Search a number of developers have been trying to replicate the feature with Google Maps. This latest attempt brings you instant Street View.

If you enter a word into the search box the map will predict your search as you type and display what it hopes is your requested Street View. I like the default setting on this app, which shows the Street View of a sign to 'Lost' when it has no suggestions for your search.

Google Maps - From 0 to Instant

Released in the same week as Google's Instant Search, this was the first app to try and replicate the feature with Google Maps.

As you type into a search bar the application will recommend locations based on what you are typing and centre the map on that location. The recommended locations appear beside the search box. The map will nearly always centre on your desired location before you have actually typed in the entire name of the location.

ShowMyStreet

This handy Google Maps application also combines instant search with Google Maps and Street View. The map also includes a nice share this view option.

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Play Dangerous or Not With Street View

Who Wants to Not Get Stabbed?

This game by Tom Scott uses Google Street View and data from the Police.uk API. In the game you are presented with the Street View of two different locations in the UK. The object is the game is to guess which of the locations has the lowest rate of anti-social behaviour.

Despite the rather gruesome sounding name this game of Dangerous or Not is actually quite an interesting test of your geographical prejudices. Underneath each Street View is a brief description of the location. You therefore have to guess which area is more 'anti-social' based on your geographical prejudices.

The results can be quite surprising and challenge your prejudices about different locations. At the end of a game you are given an assessment of your score. Apparently I am "about as street-smart as someone in a 1980s public information film."

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