wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: 360Cities.net
Richard Chesher 2010-Feb-14 19:29:00
"It seems Google is poised to create the future standard for interactive
VR Photography navigation, like it or not."
This is certainly true - After following the agitated thread in FPP
usergroup about Google doing free virtual tours for businesses - I have been
"experiencing" Google Street View. Astonishing!!! I could not believe the
coverage - VR images every 20 or 30 Metres on every road in city after city
around the world.
In many of the images the resolution is miserable and the colors flat. But
many, like the National Trust images of castles and parks all over Great
Britain are at least interesting and the interface navigation isn't too bad
- although yes, it's click and drag. Street
<http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http:%2F%2Fwww.svmapplets.com%2Fs
v%2Fnationaltrust%2Findex.php%3FmarkerId%3D10996&ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=50.640
201,-2.059936&cbp=12,175.49,,0,5&ll=52.888178,-3.262596&spn=0,333.28125&z=0&
panoid=pq60v8zjYBR9_io1LQB42Q> View Nation Trust
The thing is that Google IS creating the standard for VR navigation - all by
itself with little or no regard to what anyone says. Google Maps and Google
Earth seem to be very closed groups with their own ideas about how to do
things. But they definitely DO things in an unbelievably big way. With such
an enormous stock of imagery covering the whole planet - zillions of VR
images on Street View - plus Google Earth - I am thinking it might be really
difficult to change such a basic navigation decision. Google is Click and
Drag - so even if this group of concerned VR experts decides Click and Drag
stinks - even if we took the time to set up a "Vote" on our various websites
and blogs on the issue - what are the costs involved for Google to implement
such a change?
And if millions of people all over the world are click-dragging Street View
images - what will their "trained" reactions be when they visit other VR
image sites?
Still, maybe it isn't such a bad idea to do a "survey" and post the results
as a comment on Google's own blog. The survey might tell us something about
how the rest of the world would "vote" on the issue.
Richard Chesher
Rocket Guides <http://www.rocket-guides.com/>
BP 2568 Noumea CEDEX 98846
New Caledonia
Int + 687 87 95 63
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