Street View reaches new heights with ISS coverage

Google Street View has long expanded from the streets, allowing us to visit museums, parks, and even go underwater, but now it goes even further away, into orbit, letting us feel what it's like to be aboard the International Space Station.

Street View app will let you be "available for hire" to snap 360º photos

Google's Street View is an excellent way to see the world just like you were there, no matter where you're actually at; and it will soon let you be hired to add even more photos to it.

Portuguese railways on Street View

Traveling by train has always been some kind of special. And now, thanks to Google's Street View, you can travel through some of Portugal's railways without even having to put your foot out the door.

Google Maps Streetview Player turns your routes into video

Ever wished you could preview how a specific Google Maps route would look like if you were driving, or walking, it? Now you can thanks to this Google Maps Streetview Player.

Wonders of Portugal on Street View and Google Cultural Institute

Google Street View and Google Cultural Institute have allowed us to travel the world and visit places we might have not the chance to visit physically. And from now on, that means you can visit some of the Wonders Portugal has to offer, with 57 new places that can be visited virtually by anyone anywhere in the world.

You can now travel back in time in Google Street View

One can never stop but feel amazed by Google Maps' Street View, allowing you to travel the world wherever and whenever you want. But now we get to travel in yet another dimension inside Street View, and I'm not talking 3D... Street View has now 4D capabilities, meaning:  you can travel through time in Street View.

Google has a fleet of vehicles continuously roaming around and capturing new images and data about the streets and its surroundings, but until now we only got to see the latest updated information. Thankfully, Google has decided to let us glimpse into the past, and provide a way to go back in time to previous Street View imagery.

This means you can get to see Freedom Tower rising up in NY; the devastating effects of the 2011 tsunami in Japan; and even how Brazil is readying up to the world cup.

... This means Street View has become an even more interesting way to explore our world - and just imagine how kids today will be able to revisit their childhood places as they were, as they grow up. :)

Google allows you to Borrow its Street View Trekker

We've all seen the evolution of Google Maps and Street View over the past few years. Something a few decades ago would sound like science fiction, but that today allows us to visit a considerable part of our civilized world no matter where on the world we are. Street View began as "street viewing", but has since expanded to lots other places - including museums, and even trails in some of the most amazing places around the world.

Those images were captured by Google's Street View Trekker backpack, that has compressed the equipment that used to require a car into something anyone can carry around - and now more than ever, because Google is willing to lend you their Street View Trekker so you can capture the amazing places you know.

Well... not exactly everyone (at least for now) as this program is intendend for tourism boards, non-profit, government agencies, universities, research organizations and other entities. But even so, it sure is a very clever way to bring more of our amazing world into street view so it can be shared with everyone else.

... In Portugal, one of my first suggestions would be for a Street View stroll to Fenda da Calcedonia in Gerês. :)

GeoGuessr - Where in the World are You?

In the pre-internet era we often had to resort to inventing our own games. Some of my favorites involved guessing countries based only on their flags (world maps were great for that), or naming countries with names starting with a specific letter. Sure... after a few game sessions we would run out of countries and we'd have to move on to other themes... but I still hold fond memories of those games.

Now, thanks to Google Maps and street view, we can have a much broader game board spanning the entire world and that will put your geolocation detective mind to work. In GeoGuessr you're dropped somewhere around the world, and you'll have to figure out where on a world map. The further you are from the correct spot the less points you get, and you have five rounds to go.

In the end, you'll get your score and a link you can use to challenge your friends to see if they can do any better than you for the exact same spots. Feel like having a go? Then try and see if you can do better than my - almost - 12,000 points! ;)

Hyperlapse on Google Street View

Ever wished to record some of your driving and assemble a mesmerizing, time bending, time lapse video? Well, now you can do it in a much simpler way thanks to this Hyperlapse. This service uses Google's own Street View data to assemble a time-lapse video - freeing you from troublesome in-car camera setups, batteries that run out on the worst possible moment, memory cards that fill up and prevent you from recording what you wanted to record, and video editing software that sometime wants to drive you mad.

Just check the following video to see what you can do with Hyperlapse, and I'm sure you'll want to give it a try on a route of your own.

Guess a coast-to-coast time lapse trip is now up for grabs for anyone with an internet access and a bit of imagination. :)

Grand Canyon on Street View

Google has taken its Street View off road for quite a while, but if you like trekking, you'll certainly like to the hear that the new Street View trekker backpack is finally showing off what it can do, in one of the most breathtaking places on earth: the Grand Canyon.

You can now see the Colorado river, trek on the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails, enjoy the scenery, and explore the meteor crater, all without ever leaving your home. Though it won't be quite as spectacular as actually experiencing it on person, it will allow millions of people around the world to visit a place they wouldn't otherwise be able to.

With the reduction in size of these street view cameras/scanners (began in cars, evolved into trikes, and now to backpacks), we can expect to see more and more of our world being brought into street view, and I believe it's just a matter of time until - one day - nearly all the surface of our planet will be in it.

Visit a Google Data Center via Street View

We've seen Google using Street View not only in streets all over the world, but inside stores, museums, natural parks, and even underwater. Now, Google is using this amazing exploratory technology to take us inside one of its best kept secrets: their own data centers; the key elements that are ultimately responsible for  Google being what it is.

Just check the following video, or jump into this Google Data center street view tour, and be sure to check every corner for "geek" items that you'll certainly find amusing, from the droid in the storage area to the storm trooper guarding the "outpost"... but there's more. :)

Street View comes to Google Maps "Mobile"

With the loss of Google Maps on the latest iOS6, one of the features I miss the most is not the maps themselves (... ok, I do miss them) but one of the often forgotten features that has proven so useful when trying to figure out exactly where a particular destination is: Street View.

Though we could still use Google Maps on the mobile web browser, in a similar way to how we use it on our desktop computers; Street View has an entirely different story... until now.

Google has updated their mobile Google Maps on the web, and added Street View. That means you can use Street View, on your iPhone or iPad with iOS6, today.

All you have to do is search for a location, or press one of the many interest points, and click on the pegman icon in the bar below.

You won't be able to use pinch to zoom, or even use the gyroscope to pan around and see the Street View scenery moving by itself, but I think it's safe to say, those are thing we can very much live without... until an official Google Maps app comes to the iOS.