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And once you land on those country crossroads, you can continue exploring the area at the street level. It's really an incredible tool for sating wanderlust - j

And once you land on those country crossroads, you can continue exploring the area at the street level. It's really an incredible tool for sating wanderlust - just pop over to some place you've wanted to visit and wander the streets via streetview, all from the comfort of your seat! Speaking of which, GeoGuessr [1] is a great example of how to enjoy Google Maps. You start at some random streetview and try to figure out where in the world you are by walking around (and hoping to see a sign or two)! A lot of times you end up in dirt roads in small countries, and it's really cool to see what it looks like there. [1] https://geoguessr.com/ https://geoguessr.com/

mr_overalls 8y ago
This is fantastic!
dmortin 8y ago
As far as I know google street view costs money from this month, and it's not exactly cheap, $14 for a thousand streetviews: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/ https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/ I wonder if this tool stays free, lots of site owners are complaining about paying much more with the new pricing.
- criley2 8y ago
  It'll be an interesting thing. They definitely understand the gaming angle due to Pokemon Go causing them to specially create tools and customize their API for gaming: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/gaming/ https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/gaming/ But that seems to be Enterprise level only. They seem to have already updated for the new level. They also have advertisements and are a profitable business. My guess is that they "Contacted Sales" like the Gaming API asks you to do and have a very agreeable discounted rate.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
  I've never seen a third party site using streetview so not much will be lost. But considering the effort and volume of data they have meticulously collected you can't blame them for monetizing it directly. Google is going to learn their lesson with the insane pricing on regular maps, though.
  - dmortin 8y ago
    They could monetize it by putting ads on the maps/streetviews. They are an ad company after all, so they should have an option to show a map with ads for free, or without ads, but then it costs money.

mr_overalls 8y ago

This is fantastic!

dmortin 8y ago

As far as I know google street view costs money from this month, and it's not exactly cheap, $14 for a thousand streetviews: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/ https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/ I wonder if this tool stays free, lots of site owners are complaining about paying much more with the new pricing.

criley2 8y ago
It'll be an interesting thing. They definitely understand the gaming angle due to Pokemon Go causing them to specially create tools and customize their API for gaming: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/gaming/ https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/gaming/ But that seems to be Enterprise level only. They seem to have already updated for the new level. They also have advertisements and are a profitable business. My guess is that they "Contacted Sales" like the Gaming API asks you to do and have a very agreeable discounted rate.
kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
I've never seen a third party site using streetview so not much will be lost. But considering the effort and volume of data they have meticulously collected you can't blame them for monetizing it directly. Google is going to learn their lesson with the insane pricing on regular maps, though.
- dmortin 8y ago
  They could monetize it by putting ads on the maps/streetviews. They are an ad company after all, so they should have an option to show a map with ads for free, or without ads, but then it costs money.