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Google Street View in 2026

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Re: Google Street View in 2026

#91

Post by jdranczewski »

modeless wrote: post #31
kccqzy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

On Android they've actually rolled out the 3D view in Maps recently! Took them long enough. I now have an "aerial" button in the bottom left corner when viewing Street View imagery that switches between the two.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#92

Post by bryceacc »

aeonik wrote: post #89
crazygringo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could be... but why? What's the product? It makes sense they prototyped it. But putting it into production is $$$, way more expensive than current street view. Current street view works well enough. How is a massively upgraded 3D version, that is bloated and slower to use on older devices, going to make Google more money? It feels more like a separate product to license to architecture firms, city planners, video…

Google mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Mission statements are only there to resonate with people, so that part is working. If the mission doesn't make money, they aren't gonna do it just because it matches a statement

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#93

Post by Philip-J-Fry »

crazygringo wrote: post #48
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 could be... but why? What's the product? It makes sense they prototyped it. But putting it into production is $$$, way more expensive than current street view. Current street view works well enough. How is a massively upgraded 3D version, that is bloated and slower to use on older devices, going to make Google more money? It feels more like a separate product to license to architecture firms, city planners, video…

By selling virtual billboards within the street view

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#94

Post by thunky »

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…

> By now we should all be flying around the planet in a seamless 3D reconstruction

Right and if they did you'd likely be complaining about how they ruined Street View by making it a slow bloated mess and should have left it alone.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#95

Post by mostlysimilar »

lucaslazarus wrote: post #38
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.

I think about this so often. Google Street View and YouTube are full of irreplaceable information. At least it's not Meta, but apart from them it could hardly be in less reliable hands.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#96

Post by astrange »

doctoboggan wrote: post #56
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 think it's the same tech they use to make the "3d" background photos on the iPhone wallpaper, which is probably also the same tech used for inferring depth when converting a normal photo to a spatial photo for viewing on an AVP.

Look around uses a real 3D capture with lidar. If you move around in Mapillary it does do something similar to that using SfM.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#97

Post by astrange »

avanticc wrote: post #88

It is wild to think that Street View was once the most futuristic thing on the internet. Now it feels like a digital relic. The idea of a seamless transition from space to the front door has been a demo-room staple for years, yet we still have that clunky 'click to jump' navigation. It is not just about the visuals. It is about the lost metadata. There is so much semantic information in those images that could be pow…

That sounds nice, but it turns out nobody actually needs such a map for anything, and you're only using it because it's free.

Also, maps constantly go out of date so it's incredibly expensive to maintain one that's actually reliable and correct.

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#98

Post by mrandish »

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…

> In 2007 it was visionary and essential ... In 2026 it is a symbol of Google's stagnation.

Since around ~2010, Google's culture has gradually transitioned from exploring, discovering and building new businesses to defending and extracting maximum value from existing businesses (eg Enshittification).

I was vividly reminded of this listening to the Acquired podcast's three episode Google arc last year. Although the hosts don't explicitly call it out, they do such a good job of exploring all the ways in which pre-2010 Google was incredibly innovative. visionary and exciting, the contrast to today is sobering.

While Google deserves credit for leading the way on early AI research pre-2010, they squandered much of their pole position because LLMs were more threat/risk to their huge legacy search business (despite being deployed under the hood). Then, only when the external threat became undeniable, did they respond - requiring a huge come-from-behind to regain most of the lead they'd lost.

https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/google-the-ai-company

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#99

Post by efilife »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #35
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

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.

You have to zoom in the map and click on the binoculars in the bottom left corner!

Re: Google Street View in 2026

#100

Post by efilife »

Computer0 wrote: post #77
sundarurfriend wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe so, I can't test now but I don't see it on desktop either.

Forgive me for copy-pasting.

You have to zoom in the map and click on the binoculars in the bottom left corner!

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