Google cameras map popular Grand Canyon trails

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Google cameras map popular Grand Canyon trails

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Google and its street-view cameras have taken users to narrow alleys in Spain.

24 October,2012 08:36 pm

The search giant now has brought its all-seeing eyes mounted for the first time on a backpack down into the Grand Canyon, showcasing the attractions most popular hiking trails on the South Rim and other walkways.Its the latest evolution in mapping technology for the Mountain View, California, company, which has used a rosette of cameras to photograph thousands of cities and towns in dozens of countries for its Street View feature. With a click of the mouse, Internet users are transported virtually for a 360-degree view of locales they may have read about only in tourist books and seen in flat, 2-D images.Any of these sort of iconic, cultural, historical locations that are not accessible by road is where we want to go, said Ryan Falor, product manager at Google.Google announced the trekker earlier this year but made its first official collection of data this week at the Grand Canyon.The backpacks arent ready for volunteer use, but Google has said it wants to deploy them at national forests, to the narrow streets of Venice, Mount Everest and to ancient ruins and castles.The move to capture the Grand Canyon comes after Apple chose to drop Google Maps from its mobile operating systems and opted to use its own mapping program that was derided for, among other things, poor directions and missing towns.Steve Silverman, operations manager for Google didnt directly address the competition in saying: Just trying to document a trail, its going to be hard to beat this.Google launched its Street View feature in 2007 and has expanded from 5 U.S. cities to more than 3,000 in 43 countries. Google teams and volunteers have covered more than 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) with the Street View vehicles on a scale that other companies havent approached, said Mike Dobson, president of Telemapics, a company that monitors mapping efforts.You could safely say that its a standout, well-used application and they dont really have any competition, he said.As the sun rose Monday, Luc Vincent, Google engineering director, strapped on one of the 40-pound (18-kilogram) backpacks and set down the Bright Angel Trail to the Colorado River