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Google adds stunning underwater panoramas to street view maps
Google is going underwater; with undersea images being added to street view maps...
13:13 29 September 2012
Google Street View, a technology featured on Google Earth and Google Maps that provides panoramic views across the globe, is going underwater. On Wednesday, panoramic undersea images of waters off the Apo Island in the Philippines, images of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and underwater life around the Hawaiian Islands were added.
The materials were supplied by Catlin Seaview Survey - a project that studies the overall health of reefs - to help scientists better understand the condition of the ecosystem, and to help raise awareness.
Jenifer Foulkes, Google's ocean programme manager, told the BBC: "We want to be a comprehensive source for imagery that lets anyone explore anywhere."
She continued: “This is just the next step to take users underwater and give them the experience of an area that most people have been been to - seeing sea turtles, seeing manta rays, crazy pencil urchins and beautiful fish."
Google’s effort to improve Google Street View was a strategy designed to cope with growing competition.
Recently, Amazon partnered with Nokia in order to use the company’s mapping technology on its Kindle Fire tablets. Reportedly this technology will also be used on Windows Phone 8 system.
On the other hand, Apple’s latest iOS mobile operating system is no longer supporting Google’s services in its default Maps app according to report by the BBC.