My Google Map Blog

We wrote earlier today that images from Oberstaufen will be released on Tuesday November 2. It appears that images just went live as you can see below:

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Brazil (or as they say in Rio – Brasil) is now on Google Maps Street View. Ireland also got Street View images today.

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This is a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Google Street View coming today to Ireland

Today both Ireland and Brazil will get Street View images for the first time according to our sources. In Ireland we can expect images from Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. Street View is already available in Northern Ireland as part of UK.

Google has it’s European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

We will keep you posted and surely add a lot of new images later today when Street View is available in Ireland and Brazil.

We’ve received some great news from Brazil today! Google have announced that Street View images from Brazil will be available next week. On September the 30th you will be able to see the largest cities: São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro in 360-degree StreetView images.

In January 30 cars started taking photos in Brazil. The plan was to register all Brazilian cities chosen to host the 2014 World Cup. The work to cover all those cities will continue.

It is possible that images from more areas around the world will be released on the same day. That is usually what has happened previously. At the moment we have no information about where. We will keep you posted.

In a blog post today Raphael Leiteritz, (Product Manager at Google Maps Europe) gave us the great news that StreetView images from Germany will be available this year. German newspaper Zeit claim it will happen in November.

The 20 largest cities will be part of this first release in Germany: Berlin, Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Bremen, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hannover, Köln, Leipzig, Mannheim, München, Nürnberg, Stuttgart and Wuppertal.

Due to privacy issues, Google has developed a new service where anyone can make their own house unrecognizable before the pictures will go online. This is only if you live in the cities mentioned above. You can report it until September 15.

Google released some interesting news today about the WiFi problems and Street View:

Having spoken to the relevant regulators we have decided to start Street View driving in Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden again starting next week. We expect to add more countries in time. Our cars will no longer collect any WiFi information at all, but will continue to collect photos and 3D imagery as they did before. (Google)

Ireland is the only new country mentioned here not yet covered by StreetView. Hopefully they will be able to publish images from Germany soon too.

Where would you want StreetView cars to go next?

Google Maps Street View is coming to South Africa within the next couple of weeks. The nation is hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup (that’s soccer for you americans…). The games start on June 11.

Google have said that Street View will be available in South Africa when the games start. So, the first images from Africa might be just a few days away. Confirmed cities where they have taken images: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. What would you like to see in South Africa?

Here’s the Street View trike at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban, South Africa.

Experience the world in 3D on Google Maps StreetView. Click on the new 3D pegman on any StreetView image. You need special glasses to see it in 3D. Example:

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Local copy in case you are viewing this after April 1st…

This is a stop motion music video made up of over 2500 frames from Google street view. Only used video editing software, screen capture software, photoshop, and Google. The song is an original by Race You There.

Google have today released a huge amount of new StreetView images from the UK. CNET reports:

Google will make a further 210,000 miles of UK roads available for your perusal on Street View this Thursday, adding to the 28,000 miles that are currently shown. That means you’ll be able to see about 96 per cent of this leafy land’s approximately 246,985 miles of thoroughfares.