Launched in May 2007 to allow its users to explore the world through images, Google Maps' Street Views' coverage was limited to just five U.S. cities. When Street View first launched, the platform used to capture images was a van. Since 2007, Street View has expanded to include cities, streets, national parks and even some biking trails throughout the world. (And it's still capturing streets as we're talking). Currently, Street View is available for almost a dozen countries around the world in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Interestingly, scaling the project to this level required more lightweight and high-quality technology. Not only was the van replaced by a car, Google had to use different vehicles in different regions around the world to collect tens of millions of images. (Just think of those small alleys in London or Barcelona).
For the upcoming months, we will be travelling together throughout the world, starting in North America, to some of the most innovative and interesting libraries of the world. How are we going to do that? Google Maps. Our first stop? One of the largest libraries in the United States offering patrons access to millions of books, periodicals, and CDs, the New York Public Library also offers a large number of digitized collections that include images, prints and photographs. Interestingly, NYPL was one of the first to collaborate with Google to create a selection of online digital books as part of the Google Books Online Project. Not only is the library is also highly tech savvy with an active RSS feed as well as podcasts on iTunes U, patrons can download ebooks, video and audio directly from the website or video storybooks, video on demand as well as webcasts.
I like travelling.
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