Google says its Street View imagery now covers 10 million miles
And Google Earth is growing too
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Launched in the US in 2007,Google’s Street View project has been mapping out everything from roads to ski slopes in the years since, and just reached a major milestone – 10 million miles of captured footage.
That’s enough to stretch around the Earth more than 400 times in a distinctive Street View car, Google toldCNET. It’s the first time the tech giant has released any hard data on the scale of Street View.
Besidesphotographing roads, Street View has expanded down footpaths, inside buildings, up mountains, and evento the International Space Station. All this imagery gets refreshed every few years too.
“Imagery is at the core of everything we do,” Ethan Russell, a director of product atGoogle Maps, toldCNET. “We think of it as the foundation of the entire map-making process.”
Take a look around
The landmark of 10 million Street View miles is perhaps less impressive for those who think Google alreadyhas too much dataand information on us on file – though it does undoubtedly make getting around easier.
One of the ways Google now uses Street View is to poweraugmented reality walking directions: if GPS is proving too unreliable, Google Maps can work out where you are by cross-referencing Street View pictures.
Applenow has its own Street View feature, called Look Around, which made its debutin iOS 13 this year. However, it’s still limited to select parts of the United States.
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Google also toldCNETthat its Google Earth satellite imagery covers 98 percent of the inhabited world – that’s about 36 million square miles, if you’re keeping count.
ViaGizmodo
Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
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