The following is a timeline for Google Street View, a technology implemented in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides ground-level interactive panoramas of cities. The service was first introduced in the United States on May 25, 2007, covering five cities: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and New York City. By the end of 2008, Street View had full coverage available for all of the major and minor cities in the continental United States and was expanding its scope to include some of the country's national parks, as well as cities elsewhere in the world. For the first year and a half of its existence, Street View featured camera icon markers, each representing at least one major city or area (such as a park). Ten years after its creation, Street View had provided imagery for more than 10 million miles' worth of roads across 83 countries worldwide.
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 For the virtual tours of museums, see Google Arts and Culture#Timeline of introductions
The following timeline lists the date of each location's earliest set of Street View captures. Imagery for each update was captured anywhere from one to twelve months before the stated release date.
2007 Release date Major locations addedMay San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, New York City, in United StatesAugust Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Orlando, in United StatesOctober Portland, Phoenix, Tucson, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, in United StatesDecember Dallas, Fort Worth, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Indianapolis, Plainfield, Detroit, Providence, Boston, Hartford, in United States
2008 Release date Major locations addedFebruary Juneau, Boise, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Albany, Schenectady, Manchester, in United StatesMarchAnchorage, Fairbanks, Spokane, Yosemite National Park, Albuquerque, Austin, Little Rock, Rockford, Madison, Nashville, Cleveland, Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Richmond in United StatesMay Updated images of Manhattan, New York City, in United StatesJuneSacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield, Reno, Lincoln, Topeka, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, St. Louis, Ann Arbor, Jackson, Knoxville, Lexington, Louisville, Huntsville, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Sarasota, Cape Coral, Columbia, Greenville, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Newark, Virginia Beach; and Everglades, Grand Teton, Joshua Tree, Lake Tahoe, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia, and Yellowstone National Parks; in United StatesExpanded coverage of Boise, Boston, Kansas City, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Richmond, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa, and Tucson, in United StatesJuly 2008 Tour de France route: Aigurande, Auray, Bourg d'Oisans, Brest, Brioude, Cérilly, Cholet, Embrun, Étampes, Figeac, Lannemezan, Lavelanet, Nantes, Saint-Malo and more rural areas, in France Cuneo, in ItalyAugust Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and other cities in Australia Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama and other cities in Japan New Orleans, Baton Rouge, El Paso, Wichita, Savannah, Colorado Springs, and over 20 other cities in United StatesOctober Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Lille, Toulouse, in France Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, in Spain Florence, Milan, Rome, Lake Como in ItalyNovember Seattle, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and more rural areas, in United States Major cities in New Zealand December Memphis, Charleston, Birmingham, Portland (Maine), Huntington, Fargo, Sioux Falls, and more locations in United States More areas in Australia
2009