Google Street View snowmobile shoots Whistler

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 10:51

Your IT - Entertainment

First, it was Street View cars capturing panoramic views of our streets. Then the Street View trike arrived to gather images of pedestrian areas. Now Google's Street View has taken to the snow to produce panoramas of Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Google's Street View seems to cause a stir whenever it arrives in a new area, but the latest development is unlikely to be as controversial as photographing residential streets.

Google has equipped a snowmobile with digital cameras and GPS technology to add Street View to its maps of Whistler Village, Whistler Creekside, and several of the runs on the mountain.

The familiar 'yellow man' from Street View has been kitted out for Whistler with skis and a blue vest and matching helmet.

This development is part of Google's Winter Olympics push, which also includes a web site and a gadget to deliver up-to-date information, 3D models of competition venues in Google Earth, a Games photo gallery on Picasa, and a special transit trip planner that includes the schedules of the Olympic bus network.