Cool! Google has released new Streetview Imagery for Cesky Krumlov. You can find it here.
As Streetview continues its massive global conquest 🙂 into our “home territory” (360Cities is based in Prague) I thought I’d publish some image comparisons. Some background: before 360Cities existed, there was a little site called Prague360. The very next city that I wanted to photograph in 360 degrees was Cesky Krumlov. Cesky Krumlov, for those who don’t know, is one of the world’s most beautiful towns. The bulk of it has remained unchanged in 700 years (with the exception of tequila stalls and discos). The town has never suffered catastrophic damage from wars, fires, or floods (ok, some damage from the 2002 floods but nothing too awful).
About 2 1/2 years ago — July 2007 — I finally had my chance to photograph Cesky Krumlov in panoramic splendor. At the crack of dawn in early July, on two consecutive mornings, I strolled around with my tripod and shot a few hundred panoramas of the town. I was all alone, save for a couple happy drunk lads on their way home from a long evening, and a few garbage men here and there. You can see these panoramas on our map of Cesky Krumlov at 360Cities.
Here is the same thing on Google Streetview!
Finally, here are three side-by-side comparisons, from nearly the exact same spots. The first one is from 360Cities and the second one is from Google Streetview.
Lazebnicky Most on 360Cities
http://www.360cities.net/javascripts/krpano/krpano.swf
lazebnicky most bridge in Cesky Krumlov
Lazebnicky Most on Google Streetview
Footbridge to the Castle on 360Cities
http://www.360cities.net/javascripts/krpano/krpano.swf
Bridge to the Castle in Cesky Krumlov
Footbridge to the Castle on Google Streetview
The Marionette Shop on 360Cities
http://www.360cities.net/javascripts/krpano/krpano.swf
Marionette Muzeum, Cesky Krumlov in Cesky Krumlov
The Marionette shop on Google Streetview
Finally here are some obligatory beautiful young people in bikinis. Cesky Krumlov, as you can see, has a lovely cute little river flowing through it, in an S-shape. It’s gentle and perfect for drunken tourists to float on their canoes and not hurt themselves too badly. Luckily, these are not the aforementioned drunken tourists, but friendly and responsible folk. They are packing up after a long and pleasant day on the canoes.
http://www.360cities.net/javascripts/krpano/krpano.swf
The End of the Canoe Trip in Cesky Krumlov
If you ever find yourself in Prague – It’s one of those cities that lots of people are talking about visiting these days – you should absolutely come down to Cesky Krumlov. It is a really wonderful place, as you can see!
360Cities Blog 
360 Cities and Street View don’t need to compete with each other; instead, they complement one another. 360 Cities has fantastic imagery, true, but when I want to get a “feel” for a place I use both services. Street View allows me to “walk” down a street which 360 Cities doesn’t do, but 360 Cities takes me off-street to interesting places the Google automobile (or trike) can’t reach. Again, the services complement one another.
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Some of these street view cannot have been shot with the normal google camera rig on a van. Looks more like handheld with lot of stiching errors like cutoof objects/people. Google go for quantity more than quality.
Btw. the yellow pages companies of several countries have joined forces as a third contender on the street view market. You find the czech cities (not Cesky Krumlov yet) here http://3d.zlatestranky.cz/
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The image quality of 360 cities is of course better.
The images of Street View are full of stitching errors (I don’t call them parallax errors, because parallax errors are minor niggles in comparison).
Street View is more about documentation.
360 cities is more about photography.
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Thanks for this comparison Jeffrey. The 360 cities is definitely much better. Google Street View is much more a blanket of the whole planet (getting there), where are the panoramic virtual tours we create are more immersive, rich experiences.
Also, if a business or hotel wants to have a high quality 360 degree virtual tour made, the only option they have is to contact a virtual tour photographer. Google Street View does not accept requests to create imagery for specific businesses, nor do they have the equipment to do so.
Google Street View is a wonderful compliment to the Panoramic Virtual Tour Photographer , and in my case has in fact generated quite a lot of business for me. Thank you Google! 🙂
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