Monday, December 14. 2009

MapQuest Adds StreetView-type Imagery

Perhaps we should have taken bets on when MapQuest would announce this addition. The source of the imagery? Immersive Media.

From MapQuest PR:

MapQuest.com today released “360 View” roadside imagery, an easy way to see street-level panoramic images of a city, and a route’s origin, destination and key intersections along the way. Details are below, and at MapQuest’s blog.

Currently available in 30 major cities and 13 (corrected; originally read 15, which was identified as a typo by MapQuest PR) suburbs across the U.S., 360 View offers consumers an easy and intuitive way to put their directions in physical perspective by displaying actual street imagery beside the map .

Key features of “360 View” include:

- 3D Imagery: 360° horizontal and 160° vertical views of any given image within 360 View on MapQuest.com.
- Side-by-side Imagery: The street map is positioned on side of the screen and 360 View on the other; this puts the location in perspective.
- Simple Navigation: Easily move to a new location by moving the green arrow on the street map.
- No Special Downloads Required: Additional software is not required to run MapQuest.com’s 360 View, so getting started is quick and easy.

This release represents another significant update to MapQuest.com. In October MapQuest updated its maps with new terrain and vegetation imagery, updated the road network and hybrid imagery to improve readability and added more building footprints to maps for urban areas. Also, MapQuest recently revamped its underlying platform to enable the faster release of new features and capabilities.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in MapQuest at 09:46 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) |

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I am surprised MapQuest, a company known for accuracy and coverage, would come out with a half-baked solution like this. What good is having images of just a few hot spots of a city and spaced so far apart. Also, the images are old.

A not very good solution from a great company. Why?

#1 Mark Reed on 2009-12-21 09:23 (Reply)

It's nice to see increased interest in this space, but what distinguishes MapQuest's service from Google's StreetView or Microsoft's Bing? They are fairly sophisticated applications, but they all very closely resemble each other. At least MapQuest doesn't require Silverlight.
A similar service, RealPlaces (http://realplaces.com), distinguishes itself by allowing anyone to create their own virtual walkarounds. With fully flexible zoom-in closeups, user comments, embeddable widget, etc., it's applicable for both sharing real-world places with friends for fun, or for businesses to show off their store interiors. What really matters is that unlike any of the other sites, you are in control of your own imagery, and can add to or edit it at any time.
It's not as fancy as the big players, but it does provide a unique feature set.

#2 Mp3 Search on 2010-03-23 02:48 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Mark Reed on 2009-12-21 09:23 #2: Mp3 Search on 2010-03-23 02:48
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?   Subscribe to this entry