Google’s Street View promises more immersive exploration of Phl

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines will soon be on the map — Google Map’s so-called “Street View,” that is.

A little more than a year after Google Philippines opened shop in Manila, the US-based multinational Internet giant recently announced the commencement of so-called “Street View” mapping activities in the country.

Google’s country communications and public affairs manager Gail Tan described during the launch event at Mall of Asia’s SMX how 2013 had been a “great year” for Google locally — marked by growth in areas such as education and business.

Google had also been famously involved in the work to find lost kin and friends in Typhoon Yolanda’s wake through its “person finder” application.

In a speech, Google country marketing manager Ryan Morales later revealed that there are some one billion active monthly users of Google Maps.

Since its US launch in May 2007, the application has grown in scope of availability to more than 160 domains worldwide — supporting over 60 user interface languages.

Street View, meanwhile, features more than 50 landmarks and World Heritage Sites like the Grand Canyon, Galapagos Islands, and Eiffel Tower.

“Finally, it’s like having a brochure in millions of homes instantly around the world. A Street View of the Philippines finally gives substance to the fact that the Philippines is one of the most gorgeous countries on earth,” elatedly joined Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. in his own talk at the Street View launch.

As a more detailed part of the San Francisco company’s popular Web-mapping service Google Maps, Street View, explained Morales, “was created to make the experience of using the map better.”

He added: “With Street View, Google Maps goes past showing you where your destination is to show you what your destination looks like with panoramic, street-level photographs… This imagery provides us with a rich immersive browsing experience directly inside of Google Maps. It makes you feel as if you are really there.”

Whether mounted on vehicles called “Street Cars” or in a backpack that can be strapped onto a person, a globe-shaped array with 15 cameras — each facing a different direction — captures a panoramic, 360-degree view of an to be mapped.

Google’s techies then stitch the images together for a seamless, street-level vista that users can explore for themselves. Users can look up, right, left, and “walk” around, with the scene changing around them.

Morales narrated that, over the recent holidays, Google Philippines commenced with and finished its Street-View mapping of four specific locations within the historic Intramuros area, namely the San Agustin Church, Baluarte de San Diego, Plaza Luis complex, and Fort Santiago. Images of these sites were taken using the 40-pound, backpack-harnessed Trekker.

This is only the beginning, continued the Google Philippines executive, even as he stressed the importance of capturing images of the particular location.

“We have lost too many of our historic sites over the years,” he rued. “It’s nice to know that we can now share them online with our kids, and they with theirs — whatever happens… and being able to share our home with the world is amazing.”

Beyond virtual tourism, Morales insisted that Google Maps Street View can prove to be a government tool for “urban planning, tourism promotion, and economic development. Street View makes it easier to identify potential locales for investment.” It can be embedded for free in websites and news items, and can even assist in emergency services.

Inevitably, Google also covered the question of privacy and safety. Morales said, “We thought carefully to consider our users and develop tools to protect privacy. We developed state-of-the-art face blurring and number plate blurring to protect people’s identities. We take privacy very seriously.”

In addition, Google only maps public areas, and the images are not in real time. And since third-party contributors can submit their photos, Google moderators are on the job to filter using accepted parameters. Should there be concerns anyway, easily accessible tools can be used to flag offending images.

Google Philippines is revealing neither the number of Street View cars it has at the moment nor the quantity of Trekker arrays, but they are obviously enthusiastic about making significant headway soon. At any rate, Jimenez promised to badger them about it.

Besides, the DOT chief thinks it will be added stimulus to both local and international tourism — contrary to some who opined that Street View would remove the thrill in tourism and make the vicarious overshadow first-hand experience.

“It’s like saying that seeing a picture of a pizza satisfies your craving for the real thing,” he said with a smile.