There is a new startup called MapJack that is competition to the Google StreetView service. Right now they only have San Francisco, CA and Chiang Mai, Thailand photographed.
From Wired post about the company: << MapJack will feel familiar to users of other mapping sites with street-level imagery. You're presented with a split-screen page – the street view is on the top and an overhead map of the city is on the bottom. Blue dots on the overhead map show you all of the locations where MapJack has collected street-level imagery. You drag your place marker (a little Playmobil-looking guy named Jack) around on the map and the street view image refreshes. >> http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/03/street-level-ma.html
I did a virtual tour of San Francisco and I have to say its pretty cool. The photo quality is great! They also have icons to business websites directly in the StreetView Image.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2093/2338993403_187a973350_o.png Link showing business icon that will go to the company website: http://www.mapjack.com/?MjGnWD96bF8F9CAA
Photo Comparison of Coitt Tower in San Francisco: Google StreetView: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2056/2339825476_72503f3519_o.png http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=coitt+tower,+san+francisco+california&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=37.807038,-122.40499&spn=0.007222,0.018153&z=16&cbll=37.80286,-122.40595&cbp=2,199.27498640663367,,0,-5.364708610402327
MapJack: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2167/2338990565_a7590131f1_o.png http://www.mapjack.com/?y4EnWSp9bFBDADAA [Added screenshots – Colin] |
Hey, look at the little green guide in google maps! funny... |
http://www.mapjack.com/?8HHnWyf4bFdC7CAA http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2248/2339003189_0ff10ebddd_o.png They even photographed piers which can't be accessed by cars so they must have created a different setup than Google uses.
[Added screenshot – Colin] |
I emailed them feedback and they wrote back last night.
<<We have gear to shoot from cars, scooters, boats and by walking, so there is not really any environment we cant capture. >>
<< We are mainly a technology company. Right now we're looking for companies who want to set up their own mapping project, to license out our technology to them. We're also looking for entrepreneurs that can take MapJack and run with it, to share profit with them. >>
|
I think that Google DOES have images of higher quality, but they are not using them on Google Street View is because of privacy concerns. You know, you can see people's cat(s) and stuff.
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/o-hai-googlz-i-can-has-privacy.jpg [photo from I Can Has Cheezburger http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/06/19/o-hai-googlz/] |
The first StreetView test around Silicon Valley was the sharpest imagery used for Google Maps. San Francisco was part of that test, thats why I made it a point to show a comparison of the imagery from San Francisco by both companies. MapJack seemed to have the higher quality images from what I was comparing. |