Many of us love to travel, discover new places, get a lot of bright and unforgettable impressions from an exciting trip. At the same time, we do not always have the opportunity to go where we would like to, walk through the streets of beautiful cities and enjoy all the wonderful flavor of those places. Google responded to these users by launching an online service in 2007 that allows them to take a virtual journey through the streets of many cities around the world. In this article I will talk about the Google Maps Street View service, explain how to use it, and perform an online inspection of streets and houses.

Google Street View - Google Maps Street View

"Google Street View" (Google StreetView) is a technology based on the work of Google Maps (Google Maps) and Google Earth (Google Earth) services that allows you to view panoramas of the streets of many cities around the world.

The service was launched in 2007, and initially included photos of some US cities. Now, its capabilities allow you to enjoy the panorama of the streets of many cities of the Old and New Worlds.

The creation of such panoramas is usually carried out using a specialized vehicle, on which a ball-shaped camera is placed, which performs continuous 360-degree shooting.

The photos obtained in this way are processed by Google and placed on the specified service, allowing you to construct breathtaking panoramas of the streets of many cities around the world.

And although most of the photos are taken with a car, there are many photos taken by a pedestrian, a trekker, a tricycle, a snowmobile, an all-terrain vehicle, a boat, and even submersibles.

When instead of a car - a pedestrian

How to See Streets and Houses on Google Maps

To view streets using Google services, you can use both the stationary Google Maps network service and the capabilities of the Google Street View mobile application.

To perform a street view of a city (take, for example, the city of Moscow) do the following:

1. Launch the Google Maps service using your PC's browser (you can also simply enter the name of the city and the desired street in the Google search box, you will be offered to view this place on Google maps);
2. Find the city you need on the map (enter its name and street in the search bar, or find the city you need by moving the map and zooming accordingly using the mouse wheel);

   
   

3. Find the street you need, and then click on any of its places (a marker will appear there). Now select a small photo of this street at the bottom of the screen, and you will switch to the view mode of this street;

   
   

4. To activate the street view mode, you can also select the little man icon on the right, and, holding the left mouse button, drag it to the street we need;

   
   

5. To move along the street, move the cursor to the desired place on the street, and press the left mouse button. Those places where you can move are indicated by the "X" icon. At the same time, the arrows behind and in front of you show that you can move in the indicated directions;

   
   

6. By holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse in the right direction, you can look around and admire the local sights (you can also use the "+" and "-" keys next to the icon on the right to zoom in and out);
7. To return to the general view of the city, click on the back arrow on the top left.

Is it possible to see the streets in Google in real time

Many users would like to enjoy a real-time view of their desired streets and cities using services like Google Maps. Unfortunately, it is not possible to implement this at the moment (except perhaps for those places where cameras are installed), since the Google, Yandex and their competitors card services use photographs taken weeks, months, or even years ago.

The actual implementation of such tasks would require the use of many satellites, which, at the moment, are used primarily for military purposes.

Conclusion

In this article, I described the specifics of using the Google Maps service for street view. This service can be useful for getting to know the sights of various cities of the world, for building optimal routes and solving other similar problems. Take a virtual trip to various cities of the world, and you may want to personally go to the place you like in order to fully enjoy its amazing beauty. After all, it's worth it.

Undoubtedly, virtual travel cannot and should not replace real travel with all their range of vivid sensations and impressions. But they help us see any corner of the earth for free, even if you yourself can never visit it. In addition, this is a very convenient way to get a lot of useful information in advance and plan your future trips.

You can fly in the stratosphere over the entire planet or over the roofs of Paris and St. Petersburg, look into the halls of the British Museum or the Kremlin treasury, find yourself among the mountains and waterfalls of Iceland or in the amazing underwater world of the Galapagos Islands ... Stop dreaming, there are no more barriers in front of you!

1. 360cities.net panoramas

As poets describe the world with poems, artists with paintings, composers with music, 360cities.net describes the world with picturesque panoramas.

Here are collected tens of thousands of photographs from all over the world, and not only ours - there are even panoramas of other planets from one interesting rover. Here you will enjoy a virtual tour of the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, or to study the panorama of London, which was filmed with such high resolution that you can see people's faces in the windows of houses.

2. Google Photo Tours

Of course, the ability to view streets on Google StreetView maps has long been a surprise. But not everyone may know that the participants of this project are still fond of creating photo tours and entire virtual trips.

These photo tours give you the opportunity to walk around Taj Mahal, look at Dubai from the world's highest 800-meter skyscraper Burj Khalifa, to the whole of Paris from one of the three observation decks eiffel tower or travel to Mexico to the pyramids Chichen Itza. There are also unusual journeys, for example, a descent into a salt mine similar to an underground palace in Wieliczka (Poland) or dive into the real underwater world in dozens of different places, for example, at Galapagos Islands.

For traveling around Russia, check out RusMap.net (using Google services) - this is an understandable and affordable service for those who often travel on business trips, like to travel, or are just about to hit the road. Regardless of the goal, Rusmap will make the trip as pleasant and comfortable as possible.

The "panoramas" option allows you to take a virtual walk through the cities of Russia. Perhaps such an Internet journey will be the impetus for taking a real one.

3. Google street view app

When I travel, I often use the Street View app. It is available for Android and iPhone. The application allows you to view many panoramas located on the world map.

There are panoramas of users and panoramas of Google itself. The service is developing rapidly and the number of panoramas is increasing before our eyes.

I myself observed the fascinating process of creating a panorama on special equipment. But each of you will be able to add your panoramas using your smartphone and obeying the commands of the application.

4. Yandex panoramas

Yandex is also actively developing its map service, and on its maps you can look at the cities of Russia and the world from a bird's eye view. For example, fly over Palace Square in St. Petersburg or over the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir.

Yandex maps, perhaps, are more visual than Google, there is a panorama and map view mode at the same time.

5. Air Pano

The amazing project of another Russian Air Pano team is a rare case of professional enthusiasts creating products at a level that was previously only subject to wealthy Internet corporations. Spherical aerial panoramas, or rather whole Air Pano aerial excursions, in terms of the beauty and quality of the footage, will easily give odds to both Google and Yandex.

Filming is conducted literally from everything that can fly: from airplanes and hot air balloons to airships and radio-controlled drones. Now the site has about 2000 panoramas from the most picturesque corners of the world. Here you can visit the island of Java on the Bromo volcano or see the Kremlin from the air from different angles, admire the northern lights in Iceland or admire one of the islands of Hawaii, visit Petra in Jordan and even look inside the famous Treasury.

In addition, when viewing a panorama, you can switch to another camera by simply clicking on the helicopter symbol.

Panoramas are not only colorful, but also informative. Many are labeled with the names of visible objects.

6. Youtube 360 ​​video files

Even more immersive and fully immersive experience is provided by 360-degree video. You can easily look to the right or left, for example, when sailing past the palaces on a boat in Venice.

360-degree videos can be searched on Youtube, but can also be found on Air Pano.

You will be surprised what miracles a good photographer can do with the help of the time lapse technique (slow motion). This is a great way to show even familiar places in a whole new light and inspire travel.

Fine selections of such videos are collected on vimeo.com. Hundreds of videos provide an opportunity to visit the most beautiful places on the planet. You can admire the golden pagodas of mysterious Myanmar, the northern beauty of Norwegian sunsets, the romantic views of the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, or other stunning shots from around the world.

Another global Google project is dedicated to art. That's what it's called: Art Project. Behind the modest name lies an incredible exposition - tens of thousands of paintings from the best museums in the world. Moreover, each filmed in such high resolution that you can, for example, examine in detail each stroke of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or look into the eyes of the International Space Station. You will have the feeling that the camera is somewhere very close, and not 400 km from the surface of the planet.

The image slowly but surely changes throughout the day and you can see for yourself that our blue planet is in perfect order. However, please note that the video is only available when there is a signal from the Earth, otherwise you will only see the splash screen. Sometimes on video you can see the life of astronauts and their spacewalks.

10. Webcams around the world

If you look out of the window of the ISS - high and scary, you can look at something more "mundane". For example, visit the Maldives or the legendary London Abbey Road intersection, or hang out for a couple of hours watching pandas at the Atlanta Zoo. Earthcam.com has a huge collection of webcams from around the world, from New York to Bangkok. An excellent opportunity to follow the change of time zones on the planet.

On the site http://a-russia.ru/ you can see a lot of webcams from different interesting corners of the Crimea and other places in Russia.

Undoubtedly, virtual travel cannot and should not replace real travel with all their range of vivid sensations and impressions. But they help us see any corner of the earth for free, even if you yourself can never visit it. In addition, this is a very convenient way to get a lot of useful information in advance and plan your future trips.

You can fly in the stratosphere over the entire planet or over the roofs of Paris and St. Petersburg, look into the halls of the British Museum or the Kremlin treasury, find yourself among the mountains and waterfalls of Iceland or in the amazing underwater world of the Galapagos Islands ... Stop dreaming, there are no more barriers in front of you!

1. 360cities.net panoramas

As poets describe the world with poems, artists with paintings, composers with music, 360cities.net describes the world with picturesque panoramas.

Here are collected tens of thousands of photographs from all over the world, and not only ours - there are even panoramas of other planets from one interesting rover. Here you will enjoy a virtual tour of the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, or to study the panorama of London, which was filmed with such high resolution that you can see people's faces in the windows of houses.

2. Google Photo Tours

Of course, the ability to view streets on Google StreetView maps has long been a surprise. But not everyone may know that the participants of this project are still fond of creating photo tours and entire virtual trips.

These photo tours give you the opportunity to walk around Taj Mahal, look at Dubai from the world's highest 800-meter skyscraper Burj Khalifa, to the whole of Paris from one of the three observation decks eiffel tower or travel to Mexico to the pyramids Chichen Itza. There are also unusual journeys, for example, a descent into a salt mine similar to an underground palace in Wieliczka (Poland) or dive into the real underwater world in dozens of different places, for example, at Galapagos Islands.

For traveling around Russia, check out RusMap.net (using Google services) - this is an understandable and affordable service for those who often travel on business trips, like to travel, or are just about to hit the road. Regardless of the goal, Rusmap will make the trip as pleasant and comfortable as possible.

The "panoramas" option allows you to take a virtual walk through the cities of Russia. Perhaps such an Internet journey will be the impetus for taking a real one.

3. Google street view app

When I travel, I often use the Street View app. It is available for Android and iPhone. The application allows you to view many panoramas located on the world map.

There are panoramas of users and panoramas of Google itself. The service is developing rapidly and the number of panoramas is increasing before our eyes.

I myself observed the fascinating process of creating a panorama on special equipment. But each of you will be able to add your panoramas using your smartphone and obeying the commands of the application.

4. Yandex panoramas

Yandex is also actively developing its map service, and on its maps you can look at the cities of Russia and the world from a bird's eye view. For example, fly over Palace Square in St. Petersburg or over the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir.

Yandex maps, perhaps, are more visual than Google, there is a panorama and map view mode at the same time.

5. Air Pano

The amazing project of another Russian Air Pano team is a rare case of professional enthusiasts creating products at a level that was previously only subject to wealthy Internet corporations. Spherical aerial panoramas, or rather whole Air Pano aerial excursions, in terms of the beauty and quality of the footage, will easily give odds to both Google and Yandex.

Filming is conducted literally from everything that can fly: from airplanes and hot air balloons to airships and radio-controlled drones. Now the site has about 2000 panoramas from the most picturesque corners of the world. Here you can visit the island of Java on the Bromo volcano or see the Kremlin from the air from different angles, admire the northern lights in Iceland or admire one of the islands of Hawaii, visit Petra in Jordan and even look inside the famous Treasury.

In addition, when viewing a panorama, you can switch to another camera by simply clicking on the helicopter symbol.

Panoramas are not only colorful, but also informative. Many are labeled with the names of visible objects.

6. Youtube 360 ​​video files

Even more immersive and fully immersive experience is provided by 360-degree video. You can easily look to the right or left, for example, when sailing past the palaces on a boat in Venice.

360-degree videos can be searched on Youtube, but can also be found on Air Pano.

7. Video trips on Vimeo

You will be surprised what miracles a good photographer can do with the help of the time lapse technique (slow motion). This is a great way to show even familiar places in a whole new light and inspire travel.

Fine selections of such videos are collected on vimeo.com. Hundreds of videos provide an opportunity to visit the most beautiful places on the planet. You can admire the golden pagodas of mysterious Myanmar, the northern beauty of Norwegian sunsets, the romantic views of the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, or other stunning shots from around the world.

Another global Google project is dedicated to art. That's what it's called: Art Project. Behind the modest name lies an incredible exposition - tens of thousands of paintings from the best museums in the world. Moreover, each filmed in such a high resolution that you can, for example, examine in detail each stroke of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or look into the eyes of the noblewoman Morozova Surikov.

Many museums kindly allowed us to film not only their expositions, but also their premises. And now you can, without getting up from your chair, stroll through the halls of the Hermitage or the Doge's Palace in Venice, or visit the Museum of the Athenian Acropolis.

If you are a creative person, then such virtual tours will save your time and money, and you will get no less aesthetic pleasure from works of art.

9. Webcam on the ISS

Are you fascinated by the unexplored expanses of the universe? Then watch live broadcasts from the webcam at the International Space Station. You will have the feeling that the camera is somewhere very close, and not 400 km from the surface of the planet.

The image slowly but surely changes throughout the day and you can see for yourself that our blue planet is in perfect order. However, please note that the video is only available when there is a signal from the Earth, otherwise you will only see the splash screen. Sometimes on video you can see the life of astronauts and their spacewalks.

P.S. Did you like to walk around the world virtually? Will such virtual tours help you prepare for visiting some interesting places in real travel? Are there video panoramas in your collection that are breathtaking? Share with us in the comments to this article your impressions and findings ...

Also, don't forget to tell your friends about this new opportunity to explore the world.

The webcam will allow you to visit both inside and outside the National Aerospace Administration: you will walk along the launch pads, see how the spacecraft and shuttle main engines are assembled, get into the Museum of the Apollo 14 space module that visited the Moon.

2. Coliseum(Italy)

This camera will invite you to wander through the remains of the legendary Roman stadium, where 3,000 gladiators could fight at the same time. The Colosseum is over 1900 years old and is still open to the public.

3. Palace of Versailles(France)

The Palace of Versailles is an example of how the French kings lived in grand style. The splendor of the palace made such a strong impression on Peter I that after his visit he conceived the construction of the famous ensemble in Peterhof. The webcam will take you through the territory of the palace and the park area, where 3,600 courtiers lived at the same time.

4. Taj Mahal(India)

The Taj Mahal is a symbol of Shah Jahan's love for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, sung by poets. You can zoom in on the webcam so much that you can see the floral ornaments and the finest Arabic script that adorn the walls of the palace.

4. Galapagos Islands(Ecuador)

This webcam will offer you a lot of exciting things: dive deep into the blue lagoon and see fur seals, walk around the island and take a closer look at huge turtles and unique birds - frigatebirds with a bright red throat pouch.

Internet giant Google has opened a virtual door to its holy of holies - data centers. The webcam will take you to the places where the internet is stored.

7. White House(USA)

This webcam will invite you to visit the official residence of the President of the United States. You will walk along the red carpet, look into a large number of rooms and see the atmosphere in which the American head works.

8. Diagon Alley

Wizards from Google guide you through Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter movie. You will see the scenery and see the sights of the street with the full feeling of being on the set yourself.

9.

This is the first plane to appear on Google Street View. And not just like that. The richest people on the planet travel aboard the Emirates A380. It remains only to turn on the camera.

10. Everest base camp(China-Nepal)

A unique place that is not worth talking about, but it is better to see everything with your own eyes. The mountain air is breathtaking.

11. Wilson Island(Australia)

The Great Barrier Reef is like an outlandish forest with its own flora and fauna. You can see it in person right now.

12. CERN(Switzerland)

CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) is the world's largest physics laboratory. This is where the Large Hadron Collider is located. With the help of the camera, you can see all the details of this grandiose structure from different angles and visit anywhere in the center. Everything takes on completely different shapes and sizes when you look at the collider with your own eyes.

13. Islands of Indonesia

A young project, perhaps for the first time in Runet, fully implemented the idea virtual tours. You walk through an unfamiliar city, listen to the guide and turn your head wherever you want - all this is now possible on the "Virtual Travel" website!

"Virtual journeys" - "virtual journeys"

The craving for travel comes to us gradually. As a child we read Jules Verne, in our youth we watch films about distant countries, and then - various "Cinema Travel Clubs". This is how we gradually develop a passion for exploring the world.

Website Virtual-journeys.com is one of the links in this chain. Here you can make an online trip to many tourist capitals of the world and get the same experience as a real tourist: see the most important sights under the fascinating story of the guide.

You can make "virtual travel" in two ways. Moving around Google Street View is performed automatically and the tour can be watched like a normal video. But you can also interfere with the process (the Google panorama remains interactive) - direct your gaze in any direction, zoom in and out of the image. And all this - under the fascinating explanations of the guide.

London at Virtual-journeys.com

"Virtual tours" provide the maximum approximation to a real walk through the streets of the city; it's hard to say where you can see something more spectacular.

There are 19 cities of the largest tourist caliber in the "cage" of "Virtual Travels". Their number is gradually increasing, and if this continues, the site will take away a lot of customers from the publishers of paper guides.

Beautiful Florence

Attention is drawn to multilingualism Virtual-journeys.com. Of course, Russian is enough for us; but it's still impressive that tours are offered in ten languages, including Japanese and Korean.

If you have any inconvenience in your online journey (perhaps the voice of a virtual guide will tire you), take into account that, on the other hand, you are provided with good weather here and there is no danger of a human sea of ​​Chinese tourists.

Entertainment Capital of the World Las Vegas

Although the site "Virtual Travels" appeared only this summer, it has confidently headed for the elite of Internet tourism projects using Google services. Which is not a sin to remember:

• - virtual tours from Google to the best museums in the world (but without a guide)
• - interesting places on planet Earth
• - interactive time-lapse video based Google Street View
• - interesting geography game