GOOGLE STREET VIEW
Your business presence on Google Street View is the online version of inviting a passer-by to step inside and show them what you have to offer and why they should visit.
Google Maps
These days almost everybody is familiar with Google Maps and use it regularly to plan everything from a short shopping excursion to a world trip. Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle and air, or public transportation.
Google Earth
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and GIS dataonto a 3D globe, allowing users to see cities and landscapes from various angles. Users can explore the globe by entering addresses and coordinates, or by using a keyboard or mouse. The program is available via the Web and can also be downloaded on a desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet.
In addition to Earth navigation, Google Earth provides a series of other tools through the desktop application. Other features allow users to view photos from various places, information provided by Wikipedia on some locations, and Street View imagery.
360 Photography on Google Maps & Earth
Google Street View (GSV) is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360° panoramic street-level views of various locations. GSV provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets roads in the world as well as other outdoor areas. It is constantly growing.
Streets and outdoor areas with Street View 360 imagery available are shown as blue lines on Google Maps and Google Earth and individual 360 images are shown as blue dots or circles.
Google Street View displays panoramas of stitched images. As noted above, the drag-and-drop Pegman icon (right) is the primary user interface element used by Google to connect to Street View. When not in use, Pegman sits atop the Google Maps zoom controls.
The majority of smartphone owners use navigation apps and most prefer Google Maps, according to new survey data from The Manifest. Google Maps has 67% of the market compared to 12% for Waze, 11% for Apple Maps, and 8% for MapQuest.
Google Street View Example
An example of Google Maps (Desktop or Laptop View) with Google Street View blue lines and dots visible. In this example one of the ski runs has selected. The thumbnail within the screen shot shows the view at that point. Further clicking on the thumbnail will open the street view layer at that point on the run. The user can then progress down (or up) the ski run using interactive navigation within Street View. The viewer can stop at any point and click on the image to look around a full 360 degrees.
Use the image below to try it out. Tapping the arrows will move you forward or backward and scrolling the image with your mouse or finger (touchscreen) will change the view.
Blue-line Google Maps tours are perfect for any business with a large outdoor area such as
- Ski Resorts
- Golf Courses
- Snowmobile Trails
- Hiking Trails
- Biking Trails
- Ziplines
- Any large outdoor terrain area
360 Business Photography Galleries On Google Maps
Businesses appear on Google Maps with symbols and the business name. Clicking on a business name in Google Maps opens detailed information about the business (provided the listing has been claimed and updated) including photographs posted by the business and by customers.
A section titled “360 views” contains all 360 images of the business and the viewer may select from any in the gallery to view them. Some or all of these 360 images may be part of a virtual tour so the viewer may move from one image to another to tour the premises.