Posts Tagged ‘Straßenansicht’
Google peps up “Street View”
10 Dec. 2008 | Author: Google has delivered some new improvements to its Google Maps feature “Street View”, moving it more firmly into the center of its local search function. Alongside a new navigation system, some new features have been added to their street views.
Google-associates Stephane Lafon and Andy Szybalski outlined this in Google Lat Long blog. The update now places the yellow Street View so-called “Pegmen” prominently over the Zoom slider to the left of the map view, thus being always ready for use. If one wants 360º views of a location, one drags the Pegman to the desired location on the map. Even more impressive is the possibility to zoom right into a location (assuming one is viewing a city where Street Views are available). One then discovers a street facade that one previously viewed from above. In such a situation, Street View functions as the final enlargement possibility.
Which locations actually offer 360º views? These are no longer assigned camera icons. One can identify them only by moving the Pegman over the map – when one passes over a location with a 360º view, the Pegman changes color from yellow to blue. When the Pegman hovers over such a zone, a small preview pop-up window appears. If the user then releases the mouse at this location on the map, the Street View appears. These are often as large as the whole map.
So that one doesn’t lose the overview, a mini-map is visible in the right hand lower corner of the Street View. This shows the location of the place being viewed. Using this mini map, one can also change the location of the Pegman. With a click on the arrow at the left, one can enlarge (or reduce) the map view.
The new navigation features are also practical in the Street View. Using the navigation wheel or the arrow buttons at the upper left, one can turn the views and with clicks on the “+” or “-” buttons one can enlarge or reduce.
Data protection: no ban on digital street views for Germany
The German data protection authorities see no possibility to disallow services offering digital street views, such as the controversial Google Maps feature “Street View” (see our post) – that is at least, when the service providers adhere to certain conditions.
These rules were specified in mid November by the Düsseldorfer Kreis in Wiesbaden, Germany. The ‘Kreis’ is an association of all the top level data protection regulators in the non-legislative sector.
In the decision, the authorities specified that no faces, vehicle license plates or house numbers may be readily recognizable. Further, affected property owners or residents must have the opportunity to object to the publication of the relevant images, both before and after their publication. To enable these controls, the undertaking must inform the affected parties about their right to object.
Live Search Maps now with 360º views
The US-edition of Live Search Maps is now offering its users panorama and 3D-views, of cities, street views or buildings.
Microsoft has equipped its local search service with the Web2.0 photo tool Photosynth, with which users can assemble three-dimensional views using a collage of ‘normal’ photos. Whoever uploads photos with location-details, will facilitate these images being searchable through Live Search Maps. This recent addition was announced by Microsoft employee Chris Pendleton in his blog.
Find thing the new feature is however like a needle in a haystack – it is found after a search, in the left hand menu, under ‘Explore Collections/Show/Photosynth (per link or icon). Once discovered, a list appears showing all available Photosynth images – the geo-locations of which are displayed on the map. As these images are not embedded in Live Search Maps, users must have the Photosynth software installed on their computers. (Note, at the time of writing, the software was only available for the Windows platform).
Although this application is at present only accessible through the English-language edition of Live Search Maps, one is able to access various locations in other countries, including some in Germany, via this version of LSM.
Google Maps: new street views
Thanks to Google Maps feature “Street View” (we have already discussed this several times, most recently) users can now wander virtually through even more metropoli in Europe and the USA.
Thick and fast, Google has recently added numerous new street views on its local search, Google Maps. This was recently referred to in, several entries in the Google Lat Long Blog.
Soon after the search engine giant added many French towns such as Lyon, Marseilles and Nice (in mid-October 2008), street views of Spain and Italy followed at the end of October. So users can now ramble through Rome, Milan and Florence, or roam through Madrid, Valencia or Seville, and see the sights by mouse click. However, its not only the major European cities that have been documented – one can even view Lake Como. And punctually timed for the US elections, one can flit through the inner cities of Washington, DC as well as Seattle and Baltimore.
Locations that are available in Street View are marked with Camera icons, after the user selects the Street View button while in Map View. There are not too many in Europe as yet, but this is apparently soon to change. for example, Focus.de published an interview with Google spokesperson Stefan Keuchel, in which he announced that the German Street View debut will feature at least three cities, in early 2009.
This project is however quite disputed in Germany for reasons of data protection (see our article). Regarding this controversy , Stefan Keuchel drew the readers’ attention to an interesting article on the Podcast Portal ‘PR on Air’.
Google Maps is pepped up!
At the beginning of August, Google’s local search feature, Google Maps, displayed a new face and overlooked a few new features.
According to the motto “Less is More”, the revised Google maps start page now presents a single entry screen, with which one can search the map as well as research services and providers at a desired location. The route planner has been banished from this view, but is to be found via a link in the blue navigation bar above the search results.
Almost at the same time as the appearance of the new layout, Google treated its users to a variety of other new functions. So, alongside its pedestrian navigation (see our report) in the route planer, there is now the possibility to refine routes by “avoiding toll roads”, which is above all useful for trips outside of Germany.
Especially practical are also the new print functions for the route planner, as indicated by Google programmers Andrew Gove and Jonathan Siegel in the Google Lat Long Blog. Users gain simplified options to print practical/relevant information that will help them en route. To do this, after generating the relevant route, click on “Print” in the blue navigation bar above the map view. On top of the resulting print-view of the map, once can choose whether one requires text descriptions for each leg of the route, or rather generate a “Street View”. In addition the user can choose whether the overview map (showing the overall route) is to be printed or not.
For those who only need descriptions, maps or Street-View pictures for certain legs of the journey, the “Text” link can be chosen. In the route description, one can have a map or street-view generated for each step of the way. This can be chosen with a mouse-over/contextual-option choice. The link “Street View” appears however only when there are existing photos of the chosen location/route. This has yet to appear on the German website.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features | 
Tags: Druck, Google, google maps, lokale Informationen, Maps, Straßenansicht, Suchmaschinenriese | 
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Tour-de-France-Route in Google Street View
The 95th Tour de France has been taking place from July 5 -27, 2008. For this great cycling event, Google has placed its first Street Views of France on-line.
The 360° Views are to be found in Google Maps, Google’s local search wing. By clicking on “Street View”, a virtual view of the entire race routing is to be found. What’s more, the view is presented from the rider’s perspective, as was reported by Google employee Daniel Ratner in the Google Lat Long Blog. According to Ratner, the absolute latest features of Street View have been implemented for the 21-stage France tour, encompassing ‘Face Blurring’ and high image resolution (see our post).
So, for the first time users are able to access panorama views of Europe, via Google Maps. Until this introduction, users were only able to view USA cities, national parks and recreational areas in Street View. The Tour-de-France route is only the beginning ― Google has already announced that views of other European cities and areas will be forthcoming (see our report). At the moment, German cities are being documented (as noted in the Google Watch Blog). Street-View cars have been already spied in Munich and Berlin– confirmed by a report in the Berlin Tagesspiegel, which also mentions that Google is also shooting in Frankfurt am Main. When these Street Views will be posted on-line is any body’s guess.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: Frankreich, Google, google maps, lokale Informationen, Maps, Panoramaansicht, Panoramabilder, Radrennen, Straßenansicht, Streckenverlauf, street view, Suchdienst, Suchmaschine, Suchmaschinenriese, Tour de France |
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Google “Street View” grows and grows
At the end of May 2008, the Google Maps feature “Street View” celebrated its first birthday. On the occasion of its birthday, its creators added recently a bunch of new parorama views.
For this purpose the drivers of the Google-Street-View cars (fitted out with special 360º cameras) spread out over 37 ‘new’ USA areas, shooting or reshooting a whole lot of new photos. As detailed in a post in the Google Lat Long Blog, programmer Jiajun Zhu revealed that with this new surge, the coverage of Street-View is doubled.
Twenty new cities and urban areas, including Springfield, Atlanta, Oklahoma and Reno, as well as the addition of ten National Parks and Recreational areas such as the Everglades National Park, Death Valley National Park and the Florida Keys, have been newly documented at close range. The survey of cities such as Kansas City, Miami, Nashville, San Francisco or New York City have also been expanded.
Simultaneously, according to Zhu, the photo quality has been improved, and the glimpses of the Street-View car have been removed from photos– when looking at street level, one now sees the street itself, instead of the roof of the car on which the camera is mounted. Face-Blurring technology has now been fully implemented, thereby rendering the faces of pedestrians and license plates unrecognizable.
Although until recently only cities and regions in the USA were viewable using the Street-View technology, results are now also viewable in the German-language editions under the label “Straßenansicht”. This link appears on the map, whenever areas or locations are displayed where the photo-documentation has been published.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: Geburtstag, Google, google maps, Panoramaansicht, Panoramabilder, Straßenansicht, street view |
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Google Maps: more 360º photos on-line
The drivers of Google’s “Street-View-Cars“ have been very busy and have added a further 13 USA cities and a National Park to the offering, using their special cameras.
Google programmer Bradley Bossard described the new developments in Google’s Lat Long Blog. Among the cities in question are Albuquerque, Austin, Cleveland, Nashville and Fairbanks, as well as the Yosemite National Park.
In addition to the new 14 areas, Bossard also announced additional coverage of the outskirts of several cities already in the program, including Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. One can even marvel at the splendor of the Redwoods near San Francisco.
All in all there are now over 40 metropolitan areas and places being covered using Google’s panoramic “Street View” offering. In the German-version, the feature is called “Straßenansicht” (similar translation) but as of yet, no German cities have been posted on-line.
Street View is a part of the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface) and thus is possible to be embedded in websites in 3rd party web-presences. James McGill of the Google Maps API Team announced this feature in a recent post in the official Google Maps API Blog.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: API, google maps, lokale Informationen, Maps, Panoramaansicht, Straßenansicht, street view |
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