Google Street View coverage

Key additions

• In 2005, Google employees start the first tests of Google Street View using a van with roof-mounted cameras in the San Francisco area.
• On May 25, 2007, Street View was announced.
• On May 30, 2007, at the Where 2.0 Conference, Immersive Media Company was identified as the contractor that captured the imagery for four of the five cities initially mapped by Street View, using its patented dodecahedral camera array on a moving car. Immersive Media continued to do image capture for Street View until Google developed independent capability. Since July 2007, Google has used imagery that belongs exclusively to Google.
• On April 16, 2008, Street View was fully integrated into Google Earth 4.3.
• On May 5, 2008, Google improves the quality of Street View captures.
• On May 12, 2008, Google announced that it was testing face-blurring technology on its photos of the busy streets of Manhattan. The technology uses an algorithm to search Google's image database for faces and blurs them, according to John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps.
• On June 10, 2008, two other features included in the update were an effective mask of the "Google Car" and the application of face-blurring technology on all photos, which lowered the resolution across all photos, even the formerly high resolution images of San Francisco. Also, many metro areas nearby featured cities were included, but they did not receive their own camera icons.
• On July 2, 2008, Google Street View was introduced outside of the United States for the first time, in France and Italy. This was also the debut of Google's new 2nd Generation Cameras. 19 camera icons were added, mostly showing small towns and areas along the Tour de France route and part of northwestern Italy.
• On August 4, 2008, 28 icons of major metropolitan areas of both Australia and Japan were added to Google Street View. Included in the update were approximately 40 new U.S. hub cities.
• On November 26, 2008, the Street View button and all camera icons were deleted. Instead of clicking the "Street View" button, this is now accessed using the "pegman" button in the left-hand corner. When the "pegman" icon is dragged over the map, blue polylines appear where Street View is available and a small window shows the current Street View. If this is dropped on the map the Street View opens and takes over the whole map window.
• On December 1, 2008, New Zealand was added to Google Street View. Faces were blurred upon recommendation by the New Zealand Privacy Commission, but vehicle registration plates were not obscured.
• On April 9, 2009, Street View became available with a full-screen option.
• On June 5, 2009, Smart Navigation was introduced, which allows users to navigate the panoramas by double-clicking.
• In January 2010, Google began to introduce the third generation of cameras, allowing better image quality.
• In mid-June 2010, Google added blue dots to its maps that display user-submitted images in all locations around the world, including land areas where Street View is not available and bodies of water. These images can be pulled up on the screen in the same manner as a Street View image with the pegman by dragging it onto the blue dot.
• On October 30, 2012, Google announced that users could contribute to Street View by creating a panorama-like image from the Galaxy Nexus smartphone to share on Google Maps.
• On February 14, 2013, Wii Street U was released for the Wii U.
• On November 6, 2013, Google reintroduces Pegman, which had been removed a few months prior, to make way for a new design, and even a new Pegman who introduces icons following the location.
• On April 23, 2014, a new historical option was introduced to Street View. The date of panoramas can be selected from the timeline.
• Starting in August 2017, Google allows users to create their own Street View-like blue paths, for the connected photospheres that are sufficiently close to one another.
• On September 7, 2017, Google announces the arrival of a new generation of more efficient and precise cameras on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Street View. This is the 4th generation of cameras, sporting a more refined profile and a blue color.
• On December 3, 2020, Google announced that users could contribute to Street View by capturing video using their AR-supported phones using the Street View app.
• May 24, 2022: Google announces the arrival of a new generation four camera on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Street View for 2023, this one able to cover areas less accessible by car thanks to its lesser weight.
• May 24, 2022: Google announces the history feature of Street View on iOS and Android, allowing users to view past shots of an area that have been captured repeatedly.

  Timeline of introductions

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2008

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2012

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