The map battle is far from over. Google has made the biggest update to its Google Maps Street View service yet, adding 400.000 kilometers of new street-level views worldwide and doubling its collections of special data on points of interest.
Since the leak that Google was working on an iOS app incorporating Google Earth, slated for release at the end of September, Google's focus has been on mobile browsers. Street View arrived on the browser of Apple's iOS 6 devices. Well, it seems that this avenue wasn't fully explored, and the folks at Mountain View have continued to push forward.
Google Maps Street View has expanded its international coverage with new street and road views in Macau, Singapore, Sweden, the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, and Canada. In addition, they have added special data collections in countries such as South Africa, Japan, Spain, France, Brazil, and Mexico, among many others. This was announced by Street View Program Director Ulf Spitzer.
Among the chosen destinations are natural parks , historical centers , and prominent sites such as monumental ruins and museums . Spain boasts several, including the cities of Cuenca, Ávila, and Segovia, as well as a visit to Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, and the Reina Sofía Museum. Some of these are still under development.
Apple will not be happy with this improvement, but Google seems not to want to lose the initiative in what has always been one of its best projects for ambition and execution. We will have to wait until the end of the year to see if that application finally reaches iOS 6 and if it integrates Street View and Google Earth. The idea we get is that it is becoming more and more outlandish for Apple to deprive its users of a service of this quality.
Source: TheNextWeb