14 DAY TRIAL // Google’s Street View experience is getting a boost as the company has announced that regular users will now be able to create personalized maps of their location by using a DSLR camera.
“Starting today, it's now possible for you to build your own Street View experiences to do just that. Using a new feature in our Views community, you can easily connect your photo spheres to create 360º virtual tours of the places you love, then share them with the world on Google Maps,” Google states.
This simply requires that users create photo spheres with their Android phones or a DSLR camera and then share them on Views.
The next step involves selecting the photo spheres from your profile and using a new tool provided by Google to connect them together. Once the photo spheres are connected and published, people will be able to navigate between them on Google Maps, just like they can in Street View.
“We are excited to see the different types of Street View experiences that everyone will contribute. For example, this feature can now enable environmental non-profits to document and promote the beautiful places they strive to protect. It also opens up a new tool for photographers to showcase diversity in a specific location -- by times of day, weather conditions or cultural events -- in a way that Street View currently doesn’t cover,” Google’s Evan Rapoport, product manager for Google Maps and Photo Sphere, said.
The service continues to allow users to embed the interactive viewer on various websites, even if the content was provided by users and not by Google.
The Internet giant hopes that this new feature will enable people to share and view locations around the world through Google Maps that their teams haven’t reached just yet. “Whether you’re photographic exotic islands or your favorite neighborhood hangout, mountain peaks or city streets, historic castles or your own business, we’re thrilled to see the place you love coming to life on Google Maps,” Rapoport said.