Google Maps Goes Street View

Google just went one step ahead and added street level photographs of few cities to Google Maps. With Street View enabled, you’ll get to see 360 degree view of the street, as if you were standing and seeing the street from your own eyes. You can move forward or backward, you can turn around (360 degrees), or even zoom in and out. Currently, Street View is available for San Francisco, New York City, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami.

You’ll notice a new button on the top called “Street View”, whenever you enable Street View, you’ll notice a little guy and few streets highlighted in blue. Dragging the little guy to any blue highlighted street will pop up the street view image. You can now move or rotate using the keys in the popup.

I think they placed couple of high quality video cameras over a vehicle and then clipped out images from those videos. If you haven’t been to any of the five cities, you can satisfy yourself by taking a virtual ride through Google Maps with Street View enabled. Impressive and equally addictive!