I was honoured to be invited to a very small and exclusive meet up with Julie Taylor (Communications Manager, Google South Africa) and Stephen Newton (Head of Google, South Africa) at Kirstenbosch, Cape Town to experience what Google Street View is all about.
7 of us gathered outside Kirstenbosch and ventured in to meet with the two gents who ride the trike. Julie introduced us all and Stephen proceeded to give us a full on demo of how Google Street View is going to work and how Google Maps integrates, ect. The demo was absolutely out of this world and I’m still a little lost as to how to put it all together in my mind!
To give you an understand, let me run through what Stephen’s demo was about. Stephen opened up Google Maps on his iPhone and proceeded to allow it to find his position. From here, he searched for FNB banks and all the FNB banks in our location popped up as pin-points on the map, from here he could view information about the specific banks or he could plot a path of direction from his location to the bank. Further to his demo, he searched for Big Ben, to switch Google Maps moved away from the current screen and his screen filled with a view of Big Ben, he could then “walk” around Big Ben – fascinating!
Augustine Morkel, estate manager of Kirstenbosch Gardens then spoke to us about Kirstenbosch’s thoughts around the whole concept of allowing Google to come inside and ride around their grounds capturing the Garden. As you can imagine, this provides tourists with the ability to have a virtual tour before they arrive – Let your mind go now, imagine the possibilities.
Naturally, what will make this a huge success is if all local companies take the time to list themselves – Not only will it benefit the move by Google, but your company will be far more visible to the world!
A big thank you to Julie and Stephen for inviting me, I am still a little lost for words!
Let me be first. That must have been great to be invited. When is the release date
That is such good news for South Africa – now more people will be able to enjoy what we have to offer in glorious 360ยบ.
Here’s a preview of what a Kirstenbosch Street View scene will look like.
http://in3sixty.com/cms/manager/share/id/e76fe1c0182f44d58bc90b662d677357
It is insane to think of how big these projects are! I can’t begin to think of having nearly every road in the world (Basically), on the internet for me to view. Crazy! They’ve also spotted the Google cars roaming Cape Town:
http://overdrivetv.co.za/2009/11/scene-google-streetview-prius-in-cape-town/
Madness all around.
@Ted – They couldn’t give an exact date, but they’re naturally gearing up for 2010 of course; A mention of March/April was said, but off the record.
@Tinus – Thanks for the link!
@Sean – Ye, the cars have been cruising Cape Town, Jozzie and other cities since around September, but now they’re doing the finer details. Incredibly insane move by Google, I’m blown away!