Last month I wrote about how Google Maps upgraded the satellite imagery for a handful of cities around the world to include 45° imagery with the satellite view. The new feature, aside from providing a sample of what it must feel like to fly over these cities (by planes or by superpowers – your fantasy), offers Maps users a much clearer view of the cityscapes and reveals the cities’ distinct characteristics.
As expected, Google expanded the list of cities getting the 45° imagery treatment and today announced that they’ve applied the feature to another 24 locations (14 cities in the U.S., 8 elsewhere in the world).
As I did previously, here’s a comparison between a couple of the cities’ 45° and 90° views. This is the Castilla de la Mota in San Sebastián, Spain, as viewed from the 90° angle:
And here it is viewed from the 45° angle:
Likewise, here is the Monumento de los españoles in Buenos Aires, Argentina, viewed at 90°:
And here it is viewed from the 45° angle:
HAHA, that doesn’t even look like a place in that 90° image! You could probably take macro photos of a blemish on your face and get similar clarity.
While I may lambaste the 90° imagery as completely inferior now that a better visualization has been offered to us, the direct 90° view is still useful if you’re strictly looking for directions. In case you didn’t notice, sometimes you can’t see behind buildings while searching the 45° images (I bet it’s only a matter of time before we have fully explorable 360° images of everything, even that forgotten crawl space in your basement). However, if you’re in the eager to actually see what the city looks like the 45° aerials will provide that in spades.
After today’s addition, a total of 48 locations throughout the world are now equipped with the 45° awesomeness. The full list of cities sporting this new feature are: