What is Google Street View?

Do you want to take a virtual tour of Delhi’s Red Fort, almost as if you were actually strolling among its palaces, pavilions and mosques? You can do just that thanks to Google Street View.

Such a tour is made possible because Street View is a virtual representation of your surroundings on Google Maps, made up of millions of panoramic images.

Google Street View provides the viewer with interactive panoramas from different positions along streets across many parts of the world. Basically, you get a 360-degree view of streets, tourist spots, and landmarks. Launched in 2007 in a number of cities in the United States, it has since expanded worldwide, including even rural areas. If Street View imagery is available for a certain street, then it is shown as a blue line on Google Maps. The interactive panoramas are made up of VR photographs that have been stitched together. While most of the photography is done by car, everything from camels, boats, and snowmobiles to good old foot-power has also been used.

So, how did Google manage to finally bring back this feature to India? Street View is coming to India after changes in the country's geospatial guidelines. In February 2022, the Department of Science and Technology had released guidelines for geospatial data. 

The policy restricts foreign firms to an accuracy of 1 metre. It also mandates that such companies will have to use application programming interfaces from authorised domestic licensees. As a result, the collection and ownership of data will remain with local entities. However, under the new guidelines, Google is allowed to collect and use geospatial imagery in India through partnerships with local firms. The policy even identifies excluded areas like government and military locations, thus resolving security concerns. 

So, this time, Google has launched Street View in India in collaboration with Tech Mahindra and Genesys International, a mapping and geospatial company. This is the first time that the service will be handled completely by local partners.

Street View will be available in India with imagery licensed from the local partners. To begin with, the service will cover over 150,000 kilometres across ten cities. And, the plan is to expand the service to more than 50 cities by the end of 2022.