Google Maps has introduced a new feature – immersive view.
Basically a 3 dimensional version of Street View, it stitches together billions of street level and aerial images to create a fully immersive, explorable version of the real world.
All the existing features of Google Maps will be there (directions, travel info etc) along with a ‘time slider’ which allows users see what places look like at different times of day, and in various weather conditions ….You’ll never have to worry about whether or not a beer garden gets direct sunlight again 😀.
Planned for release in late 2022, it will initially be offered for just 5 cities – Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo.
Why should you care?
For all the noise about ‘The Metaverse’, Google still represents the closest thing we have to a universal platform through which everybody accesses the internet.
Immersive view (and it’s inevitable developer tools) represents a huge opportunity to create immersive experiences online without the need to build a new online world from scratch.
Perhaps Web 3.0 will look more familiar than we thought?
