The minimap in the corner lets you see the surrounding area. To see Street View and the map at the same time, you can click on the icon at the top left of the minimap. Looking up driving directions? This split screen view is especially handy for previewing turns along the way, and each step will be listed at the top of the Street View image.
Want to learn more and see the new features in action? Check out this video, narrated by Pegman himself:
And since Pegman now has even more of a starring role while you're exploring Street View, we thought we'd take a moment to celebrate him with a parade of Pegman Easter eggs, sketches, and prototypes:
Posted by Stephane Lafon, Software Engineer & Andy Szybalski, User Experience Designer
I waited in line on launch day to buy my first-generation iPhone, and ever since then it has never left my side. The best part is that it keeps getting more useful with every software upgrade Apple puts out. This time around, Apple has improved their version of Google Maps by putting even more Google features in your pocket.
The most eye-catching one is Street View: Apple's silky-smooth implementation makes it a joy to pan around the world. You might wonder why you'd want to look at panoramas of the world while you're already out in it, but I've found it handy for getting an idea of what to look for when going somewhere new. In somewhere like New York, it's also a great way to get your bearings when you pop out of a subway station in an unfamiliar part of town.
Speaking of subways, my favorite new feature is the addition of Google Transit and walking directions. In a time of congested roads and fluctuating gas prices, driving isn't always the best way to get from A to B, so why limit your options? Now when you get directions, you can switch between driving, walking, and public transportation directions (where available) with a single tap.
Google Maps has schedules for transportation systems in more than 100 cities worldwide, including New York, Tokyo, Montréal, Zürich, and Perth — and now it's easy to get that information on your iPhone. As more transportation agencies decide to share their schedule information, their routes will be available on the iPhone the instant they appear in Google Maps on the web.
Finally, in the latest version of Google Maps for iPhone, you can email information about a location to your friends, which can be a great help when coordinating a get-together.
To get these new Maps features on your iPhone, you'll need to update your phone's software through iTunes. I hope you'll find these new additions as useful as I have. And don't forget that even if you don't have an iPhone, Google Maps for mobile is available for many other kinds of phones, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60, and Android — visit www.google.com/gmm for more details.
Posted by Joe Hughes, Mobile Maps Software Engineer
Are you also an enthusiast taking panoramic views? It's not difficult to add your images as Photooverlays to Google Earth on your own. If you want to share them with others, just follow the links in the balloons of the 360cities.net layer that will take you to the website to join the 360cities.net community.
Posted by Philipp Hirtz, Engineering Manager, Google Earth
For the third year in a row, Google is delighted to work with My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign to give kids the power of global knowledge, on Geography Awareness Week. Beginning today, students and teachers alike can explore a range of geo-activities using Google Earth. Working together on projects like this, that encourage people to roll up their sleeves and explore the world, is what Google's Geo Education initiative is all about.
Did you know that the Lake Victoria water level is dropping, impacting the daily lives of 30 million Ugandans, Kenyans, and Tanzanians? Take a geo-tour of global hotspots to see how geography can help us understand critical issues facing the world today.
Did you know that dining in certain fast food joints in Japan can be a very elegant experience? Or that grocery shopping in Russia is often more of a negotiation than a transaction? With National Geographic's Glimpse, you can hear from young people living and working around the world and see their stories in Google Earth.
This week we introduced the new Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth, a groundbreaking collection of 6,700 3D buildings modeled as leading scholars determined they stood in the year 320 A.D.
While we hope that teachers are already pretty excited to incorporate Ancient Rome 3D into their lessons, we wanted to go a step further and issue an open challenge to educators to harness the power of this new tool in the classroom. Today, we're proud to announce the launch of the inaugural Google lesson plan contest for K-12 educators in the US, the Ancient Rome in 3D Curriculum Competition. Whether you teach art history to high school students or geometry to fifth graders, the new visual tool can spice up lessons old and new. From a comparative architectural study using the ancient 3D models and modern Street View imagery to a new LitTrip of Virgil's Aeneid, the only limit is your imagination!
From Caesar to Augustus, the Roman Forum to the Arch of Constantine, it's time to get those creative juices flowing. Register and upload your original curriculum at earth.google.com/romecontest by February 9th for the chance at fame, glory, and an awesome prize package!
Posted by Anna Bishop, Google Earth Education Team
When you're going into a city or to a new part of town, you probably don't want to waste time circling blocks to find areas where you can park. Here are some ways Street View can help:
Take a look to see if there is street parking available at your destination.
Take a look around for parking lots. When you see parking lots, you can sometimes zoom in and read the rates so you can find the lot with the best deal.
Look for parking meters so you know if you need to bring a handful of quarters.
If you're tying to avoid all this hassle by biking somewhere, look for bike racks.
Google Maps may not be able tell you where you'll find a free space (unless you're in Santa Monica -- in which case we can!) but Street View should save you some time and hassle.
and altitude information are plotted, you can get a pilot's eye view of the terrain around them.
Last, but by no means least is iLoveMountains. Under the umbrella of the non-profit group Appalachian Voices. Appalachian voices are a Google Earth Outreach grantee that engages in campaigning against mountaintop removal used in the production of coal. The iLoveMountains.org project lets people see their connection on Google Maps or Google Earth to mountaintop removal based on their U.S zip code. From there, people can learn about what involvement their local supplier may have in buying coal supplied using mountaintop removal techniques - and what action they can take. These kinds of "story-telling" KMLs & mashups stimulate the senses by giving a real feeling of connection to the place, illustrating the issues.
Hopefully you'll have some fun with these various apps, and perhaps you'll get inspired to create your own. If so head over to the Google Code - Geo page, where you can learn how to create all kinds of wonderful tools. These could range from a simple maps mashup through highly complex dynamic KML files.
Along with DC, we're also launching Seattle and Baltimore -- these have been our 3 most highly requested cities, but I hope you'll agree it was worth the wait.
In Baltimore, take a look at the National Aquarium:
To give you even more of a reason to explore Street View, we've hidden another special surprise somewhere in our US imagery so keep your eyes peeled. Need a hint to get you started? It's in the home state of someone whose name you'll see on the ballot today.
While you wait for results to come it, we want you to find as much information as you'd like concerning this historic 2008 election. Here are a few of our latest geo tools for getting the full scoop:
Bring a video camera with you to the polls to capture your voting experience on YouTube's Video Your Vote channel. We're using Google Maps to track these videos across the country -- and to see where polling problems might be occurring during the day.
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