Today marks 15 years since the birth of Google Maps Street View, a Google project that allows you to take panoramic photos of the whole world from ground level. To celebrate, the company is releasing several new features.
First, Google brings historical street view data to iOS and Android phones. This feature has been around for a long time in desktop browsers, where you can switch to Street View and then travel back in time through the Google Image Archives. When you click on a location to view Street View images, a “see more dates”button appears next to the photo’s current age, allowing you to view all photos for that area dating back to 2007. Google says this feature will be released. “starting today on Android and iOS worldwide,” though as with all Google product launches, it will take some time to fully roll out.
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Google is also introducing a new indoor camera built specifically for street viewing. The company says it is “about the size of a domestic cat”and weighs less than 15 pounds. The goal is to take “all the power, resolution and processing capabilities we’ve built into the entire Street View vehicle”and cram it into an ultra-portable package that can be shipped to underserved areas “like the Amazon jungle.”
Google already has several versions of the Trekker backpack-mounted street camera for travel trailers, so this camera is meant to add to its fleet. Street View vehicles are large mobile computers that are difficult to move around the world, and this camera is completely self-contained. It can be easily attached to the car’s roof rack and controlled via a smartphone app. There’s even a modular system for add-ons like lidar.
Like other Street View cameras, this one is not for sale, but Google will give you credit if you can convince the company to ship it to you.