Google Street View to Capture the Big Outdoors in South Africa

Google and South African Tourism announced the winners of the online and mobile poll, in which South Africans voted for the first tourist attractions to be photographed by the Google Street View Trike.

The top three most popular tourist attractions will get a visit from the Street View trike and car in the coming weeks. The images it collects will be carefully stitched together with the aim for them to be available in Street View on Google Maps, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The Trikes, which weigh nearly 115kg, is comprised by three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry.
The three winners reveal South Africa's passion for the big outdoors: Chapman's Peak and the Cape coastal routes; Kruger National Park; and the Blyde River Canyon. These tourist attractions will be put right on the virtual map, tempting people at home and overseas to explore South Africa's scenery and landmarks in an exciting new way, over the internet.
In addition to the Cape coastal routes, Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon, the voting shortlist of 20 included Tsitsikamma National Park, Simon's Town and Boulders Beach, the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the Franschhoek Winelands, Durban Waterfront, Newlands Cricket Stadium, Maropeng and Sterkfontein Caves, Addo Elephant Park, Madiba's House, Hector Pieterson Memorial and other Soweto Highlights; Constitution Hill; St Lucia/iSimangaliso Wetlands; the Big Hole, Kimberley; Cathedral Peak; the Apartheid Museum; Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift and Valley of the Zulu Kings; Golf Course Highlights and the Bloemfontein Houses of Parliament.

Google Street View South Africa

Google Street View: Should South Africans be worried or is the world just paranoid?

Google Street View is coming to South Africa and it seems people are unsure if they should be terrified or excited.

In an effort to make some sense of the issue, I’ve decided to write a few words on the following :

1. What is Street View and how does Google create it?
2. What are the privacy concerns surrounding Google Street View?
3. A personal perspective on privacy.

What is Google Street View?

Google Street View is an extension of the very popular Google Maps.
It allows users to ‘go down to street level’ and see what it looks like at [...] Continue Reading…

Two years ago, Google sent out an army of hybrid electric automobiles, each one bearing nine cameras on a single pole. Armed with a GPS and three laser range scanners, this fleet of cars began an endless quest to photograph every highway and byway in the free world.

One of the best jobs in the world?

Google (GOOG) has hired two lucky young men to ride around France on dopey looking tricycles snapping up photos of historical sites that are inaccessible by car. This three-wheeler is a sight with its long pole holding nine cameras, a GPS, a computer and a generator. But the contraption tooling around the French capital needs all that gear to do its job – adding three-dimensional images to Google's Street View Maps.

The riders, wearing Google tee-shirts and white helmets, are visiting well-known sites such as the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris, the Jardin du Luxembourg on the city's Left Bank or Les Halles, in the busy centre of the French capital.

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