Google tweaks Street View

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 27 November 2008 07:09

Business IT - Networking

Improvements to Google Maps' sometimes controversial Street View feature make it easier to images for a location on a map.

Street View delivers a photographic view of the covered streets. Even though the photos are a point-in-time record (and an from an uncertain time at that), some property owners and residents were aghast at the idea that anyone could access photos of their premises and took up Google's offer to remove images on request.

A new 'Pegman' (the figure used to relate Street View and a map location) icon appears permanently above the zoom slider in Google Maps.

To go into Street View, all you need to do is drag Pegman onto the desired map location. Hovering over a location displays a Street View preview.

Alternatively, adjusting the zoom slider to its maximum switches from map view to Street View.

Furthermore, Street View now displays a small map of the selected location at the lower right corner of the image. This can be toggled to a split-screen arrangement (upper half image, lower half map) by clicking a button at the top right of the map.