On Tuesday, September 30th, Google Malaysia officially took the wraps off its shiny new Google Maps Street View imagery for Peninsular Malaysia. We noticed that the imagery already went live three days before this event, however during the launch, we were able to get a bit more information regarding the imagery highlights and future roadmap of Street View in Malaysia.
Google Malaysia began taking imagery of the streets of Malaysia last year in August. Equipped with the Street View Car, the Trike, a backpack-based Trekker system, and an indoor Trolley, the team began capturing the scenery along the Peninsular, claiming that Street View has now covered 90% of the imagery on West Malaysia’s public roads (highways, tolled roads, state roads, trunk roads), urban squares, and even the suburban neighborhoods. Not stopping there, Google Malaysia also captured many off-road sites using the wearable Trekker backpack system.
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Here are some of the highlights of Google Maps Street View imagery in Peninsular Malaysia:
- Taman Negara National Park — one of the oldest rainforests in the world;
- Holiday destinations in Langkawi and Pangkor islands;
- Melaka and Penang, two of UNESCO world heritage sites; and
- Putrajaya, the Malaysian government administrative center.
You can view Google Maps Street View either on the web, or through its mobile apps. On the web, if you drag the yellow ‘Pegman’ icon on the bottom-right on the map, areas that have street-level imagery will be highlighted in blue. Just drop the Pegman onto any of the highlighted street to jump directly into the view. There will also be a carousel at the bottom of the page in the new Google Maps that will show a thumbnail of the Street View imagery whenever available.
Ultimately, Google makes the bulk of its money through advertising, but by publishing Street View of Malaysia, it hopes to provide us Malaysians with its valuable map service that not only is more relevant than the competition, but could also give us more ways to explore local hotspots that is either our favorite, or somewhere that we haven’t even been to before.
Sajith Sivanandan, the Managing Director of Google Malaysia, was there at the event and he said, “Malaysia is a diverse and constantly growing country, and by providing users and businesses with more useful map information, Street View can also help create lasting economic impact. We are pleased to be able to share these new panoramic imagery of Malaysia on Google Maps.”
As we all already know, Google doesn’t rest on its laurels once the imagery is completed. It took the company 13 months to publish 90% of Peninsular Malaysia, but it will keep refreshing Street View imagery of hotspots every few months. The search engine giant plans to continue refreshing these imagery plus expanding into uncharted territory over the coming years. However, Google wasn’t able to provide us with a clear answer on when will Street View for East Malaysia be published.
But that’s not all. In collaboration with the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Google has embarked on the world’s first Street View imagery from a Trekker system on a kayak, along the Peninsular coastline, which began since September 9th in Pengkalan Kubur, Kelantan.
For privacy-sensitive folks, Google also made it easy to “remove” images from Street View. Every imagery has a ‘Report a problem’ link on the bottom-left if you’re on the web, or on the top-right if you’re on the mobile app. Once Google has reviewed your claim of inappropriate imagery and approved it, the image will be removed.
Speaking of mobile apps, to view Street View, just long-press on a street to drop the red pin, tap on the street name to expand the list and the Street View thumbnail will under the Save and Share buttons. Besides on the web, Google Maps is available on Android and iOS as well. Also, to learn more about the ‘behind the scenes’ process, including how the collected images are aligned and stitched into a 360-degree panorama, visit this link here: http://www.google.com/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/.
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