Google Street View Captures Big Outdoors

Public votes for 'Street View Trikes'peg Cape coastal routes as a firm favourite for Google Maps

Google and South African Tourism announced the winners of the online and mobile poll, in which South Africans voted for the first tourist attractions to be photographed by the Google Street View Trike.

The top three most popular tourist attractions will get a visit from the Street View trike and car in the coming weeks. The images it collects will be carefully stitched together with the aim for them to be available in Street View on Google Maps, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The Trikes, which weigh nearly 115kg, is comprised by three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry.

The three winners reveal South Africa's passion for the big outdoors: Chapman's Peak and the Cape coastal routes; Kruger National Park; and the Blyde River Canyon. These tourist attractions will be put right on the virtual map, tempting people at home and overseas to explore South Africa's scenery and landmarks in an exciting new way, over the internet.

Additionally, businesses and tourism organisations around the country can benefit from the Street View technology by embedding Google Maps directly into their websites for free. Here they can add layers of information such as parking locations, viewpoints and details of upcoming events. Other sites on the voting shortlist will also be added to Street View.

Google and South African Tourism started the campaign two weeks ago by asking the South African public to vote online and on their mobile phones for their favourite tourist treasures.

In addition to the Cape coastal routes, Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon, the voting shortlist of 20 included Tsitsikamma National Park, Simon's Town and Boulders Beach, the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the Franschhoek Winelands, Durban Waterfront, Newlands Cricket Stadium, Maropeng and Sterkfontein Caves, Addo Elephant Park, Madiba's House, Hector Pieterson Memorial and other Soweto Highlights; Constitution Hill; St Lucia/iSimangaliso Wetlands; the Big Hole, Kimberley; Cathedral Peak; the Apartheid Museum; Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift and Valley of the Zulu Kings; Golf Course Highlights and the Bloemfontein Houses of Parliament.

Stephen Newton, Country Manager for Google South Africa said, "We've seen a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from people to get their favourite places onto Street View, including via our voting pages and via suggestions over radio. Now it's down to our super fit tryclists and our drivers to get cracking and photograph these places so that curious naturalists, tourists and students all over the globe can soon admire the country's heritage and plan their next holiday."

Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Map, which is already available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world. It is also available in Google Earth and on Google Maps for Mobile. Street View driving began in South Africa last September and, when launched, the product will allow people to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery from cities and other locations around South Africa.

In countries where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework, or just explore and get to know your town better.

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Interested in seeing the results of this experiment and other great places in Cape Town? Download our innovative Google Earth 2010 map.