"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
- 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]
- 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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