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Google Street View in 2026

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Re: Google Street View in 2026

#31

Post by modeless »

kccqzy wrote: post #18
modeless wrote: post #10

Street View is such a missed opportunity. In 2007 it was visionary and essential to create the map data that allowed Google Maps to win. In 2026 it is a symbol of Google's stagnation. Essentially zero improvement in user experience for more than a decade, in a time of incredible advancements in computer vision. By now we should all be flying around the planet in a seamless 3D reconstruction unifying street level and…

What you describe seems to have been implemented in Google Earth. It seems like an intentional product choice to do it in Google Earth and not Google Maps. Most people use Google Maps to get directions and reviews of places, and very few people I know even use the street view feature.

Google Earth and Google Maps 3D satellite view on desktop web have essentially the same rendering of Street View, which hasn't materially changed in 10 years or more and does not have the features I described. Google Maps on mobile never integrated the 3D satellite view at all, which represents another regrettable lack of investment on Google's part.

People rarely use the Street View feature because it's difficult to access, and difficult to understand spatially. Free camera motion is impossible and the transitions are jerky and stilted. As a result it's relegated to special places in the UI that are rarely visited. If it was seamlessly integrated into satellite view and directions then it would see much more usage.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#32

Post by efilife »

modeless wrote: post #12
efilife wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds awesome, is there a video of it I could watch somewhere? Edit: for those who didn't know, like me, apple's maps are available at https://maps.apple.com . You can see this yourself. The effect is unvelievably smooth compared to what Google maps have

Oh cool, I didn't know they added their Street View equivalent to the web version. The animated transitions are much better than Google's.

They seem to be significantly slower though

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#33

Post by saynay »

hmokiguess wrote: post #23

Tangential comment but I still don't understand how we have technology to identify a car license plate from space but we have pixelated images from Antarctica on Google Maps / Google Earth. Why not publish that and make it accessible? Is it true that Antarctica is not easy to scan due to ice and snow?

I wonder if we just don't have many of these types of satellites in a polar orbit, since we don't have as big a need for that type of imagery for the poles?

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#34

Post by encom »

modeless wrote: post #24
taeric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree something like this sounds really neat, I am curious what the value proposition is? Pointedly, is it any higher than doing the same thing in a video game in a fantasy world?

The difference is that it's useful for navigating the real world. You could have way better directions displays that show directions in context instead of just schematically. It would make the petabytes of imagery that has already been collected much more accessible and therefore useful, instead of being relegated to a special clunky Street View mode that is rarely visited. It would enable exploring real spaces in a…

Reading a map isn't that hard. It just sounds like an elaborate way to illustrate navigation with crayons. A cool product demo, but not very useful in practice.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#35

Post by sundarurfriend »

efilife wrote: post #4
Oarch wrote: post #2

Apologies as this is fairly tangential: There's a parallax effect in Street View on Apple Maps that separates out the layers of every image. Things like lampposts or telephone poles all rotate slightly differently to whatever is behind them. And it's such a subtle effect that I still break my brain trying to determine whether or not I've made it up. Imagine expending that much development time and effort for somethin…

Sounds awesome, is there a video of it I could watch somewhere? Edit: for those who didn't know, like me, apple's maps are available at https://maps.apple.com . You can see this yourself. The effect is unvelievably smooth compared to what Google maps have

Does it appear only if you visit the website on mobile? I don't see any street view option when I visit that site on a PC.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#36

Post by ks2048 »

modeless wrote: post #10

Street View is such a missed opportunity. In 2007 it was visionary and essential to create the map data that allowed Google Maps to win. In 2026 it is a symbol of Google's stagnation. Essentially zero improvement in user experience for more than a decade, in a time of incredible advancements in computer vision. By now we should all be flying around the planet in a seamless 3D reconstruction unifying street level and…

We need an open version (as OpenStreetMap is to Google Maps).

Mapillary (https://www.mapillary.com/) has surprisingly good coverage in some places, but the experience is lacking, partly because most of the images (where I've looked) aren't 360 views.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#37

Post by hnlmorg »

modeless wrote: post #10

Street View is such a missed opportunity. In 2007 it was visionary and essential to create the map data that allowed Google Maps to win. In 2026 it is a symbol of Google's stagnation. Essentially zero improvement in user experience for more than a decade, in a time of incredible advancements in computer vision. By now we should all be flying around the planet in a seamless 3D reconstruction unifying street level and…

You can do that with Google Earth VR. It’s actually really cool in VR. You feel like Godzilla.

Unfortunately it’s only a small subsets of major cities and the implementation feels so half-baked it could have been an AWS service.

But it’s still a cool tech demo nonetheless.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#38

Post by lucaslazarus »

modeless wrote: post #10

Street View is such a missed opportunity. In 2007 it was visionary and essential to create the map data that allowed Google Maps to win. In 2026 it is a symbol of Google's stagnation. Essentially zero improvement in user experience for more than a decade, in a time of incredible advancements in computer vision. By now we should all be flying around the planet in a seamless 3D reconstruction unifying street level and…

Knowing Google’s tendency to kill things they try and fail to revamp, I’ll take this stagnation as long as they keep updating it with new imagery. Street View is the greatest project in human historiography; there’s too much to lose to silly Google management.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#39

Post by taeric »

modeless wrote: post #24
taeric wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree something like this sounds really neat, I am curious what the value proposition is? Pointedly, is it any higher than doing the same thing in a video game in a fantasy world?

The difference is that it's useful for navigating the real world. You could have way better directions displays that show directions in context instead of just schematically. It would make the petabytes of imagery that has already been collected much more accessible and therefore useful, instead of being relegated to a special clunky Street View mode that is rarely visited. It would enable exploring real spaces in a…

I could see this as an argument for a heads up display. So, good for projecting directions onto a windshield or for having the glasses thing. But this? I don't see how a VR world helps anyone navigate the real world. That is, you seem to be saying the VR data is needed for AR usage. And I just don't see how those are helping each other too much.

I'm fully bought off on the "it would be fun" aspect. I don't see a value proposition for it, though.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#40

Post by hnlmorg »

Oarch wrote: post #2

Apologies as this is fairly tangential: There's a parallax effect in Street View on Apple Maps that separates out the layers of every image. Things like lampposts or telephone poles all rotate slightly differently to whatever is behind them. And it's such a subtle effect that I still break my brain trying to determine whether or not I've made it up. Imagine expending that much development time and effort for somethin…

I just wish Apple would add more streets. London is the closest place with Apple “street view” to me and there are literally a couple of cities (!!!) between me and London. So I don’t hold any hope that Apple will ever get round to coming to my small village if there are entire cities they’ve left out.
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