Google Street View

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps that provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level. When it was launched in 2007, it only had five American cities included but it has since expanded to include thousands of locations in the United States, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Google Street View displays photos taken from cameras mounted on a fleet of cars and placed in 'image orbs' within Google's maps, displayed against the backdrop of images previously taken from satellite that make up Google's maps. These "image orbs" can be navigated using either the arrow keys on the keyboard or by using a mouse to click on arrows displayed on the screen. Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and from a variety of angles. Lines that are displayed along the street that is shown indicate the direction followed by that street view camera car.

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