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Hacking Google Street View

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 10 months ago

"just because you're panoid doesn't mean they're not mapping you"

 

Why wouldn't Google release an API for their new Google Street View? We don't know, but boy, it's fun to disect their undisclosed API, and it's even more fun writing hacks for it!

 

[update] Actually Google has published code  for KML2.2 PHotoOverlay that might be very useful:

 

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/photos.html

 

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tags_beta1.html#photooverlay

 

 

 


 

Current Hacks

 

Mikel Maron's Upcomming Flickr Street View hack (all done from Y! Sunnyvale at WhereCamp)

 

Pulled down at the request of Google Tom Longson's Google Street View Scraper (used to walk Google Street view metadata, sample data scraped while at Y! Sunnyvale)

 

Greg Sadetsky's GHATS (okay, not really a hack, but still funny)

 

Nathan de Vries' Google Street View Timelapse Videos (driving over the Golden Gate Bridge and down Las Vegas Boulevard)

 

Jordan Bayliss-McCulloch's Advanced Google Street View Viewer (Movie - Preview Only) - an advanced viewer for the the Google Street View panoramas (C++/OpenGL)

 

....your hack here!

 

 


API Information

 

API can be found at http://maps.google.com/cbk and http://cbk0.google.com/cbk (not sure what the difference is)

 

 

Parameters include:

  • output
    • output type, known valid inputs: [xml,tile,overlay]
    • kml, rss, txt do not work with the output parameter.

  • ll (probably means latitude longitude)
    • lat long, known valid inputs <lat>,<lon>
    • if lat long is close to a valid panoid, the closest panoid will be returned
    • if the lat long is far away from a valid panoid, an xml document will be returned with the following:
      • <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><panorama></panorama>
  • panoid (panorama id - probably a timecode)
  • zoom [1,2,3]
    • zoom level for photo
  • x
    • horizontal offset for tiles
  • y
    • vertical offset for tiles

 

 

Example API calls

 

url for an xml document resulting from a user click on google maps

http://maps.google.com/cbk?output=xml&ll=37.765,-122.4

 

 

 

 

url for an xml document from a user click within the flash pano viewer

http://cbk0.google.com/cbk?output=xml&panoid=0x88d9bf2e9040e57d

 

url for an example tile

http://cbk0.google.com/cbk?output=tile&panoid=0x88d9bf2e9040e57d&zoom=2&x=2&y=0

 

url for the blue street view tiles

http://cbk0.google.com/cbk?output=overlay&zoom=13&x=1308&y=3169

 

 

Use cases for an open API

 

 

Please add to this list! It may get Google to release an offical API for Street View!

 

  • Upcoming event latlong
    • Street View Photos
    • Flickr upload w/ latlong geotags
  • Maps Mashup with user generated panoramas
  • SF 2D Map with only street view photos
  • Street Views with Open Layers as a seperate layer
  • Closest photos of your surroundings from a GPS enabled cellphone

 

 


More Information

 

How it all started:

http://gregsadetsky.com/?p=81

 

Street View isn't completely new, hacking from the A9 days:

http://brainoff.com/a9/

 

Some analysis of the PanoID:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drwelby/sets/1652128/

 

 

 

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