Google has added 100 thousand more tourist routes to its maps

Google has added about 100 thousand tourist routes to attractions in 200 countries to the capabilities of its mapping service. The new descriptions contain about a million user-generated photos of interesting places.

Updates are available both in the desktop version of Google Earth and in mobile versions for the Android and iOS platforms, RIA Novosti reports.

The routes offered to Google Earth users contain three-dimensional objects, information from the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, as well as user photographs that should create a more complete picture of the object.

"A tour guide acts as a local tour guide and suggests interesting attractions near the places you visit," Google says.

Google has also published new panoramas of the Grand Canyon - 9.5 thousand panoramic images now cover about 120 kilometers of trails and roads.

To shoot these panoramas, company employees used portable equipment weighing 18 kilograms, which included an optical system of 15 lenses controlled by the Android operating system.

Let us recall that over the past year, according to available data, Google, “in order to add more realism,” has been constantly improving the WebGL library (Web-based Graphics Library, “Internet library of graphic functions”) - a technology that allows you to display 3D graphics in the browser without need to install additional software.

MapsGL, an alternative version of Google Maps that uses this library, can already display 3D buildings and allows users to move the focus around buildings, look at them from different angles and, at the same time, see them from above.

In addition, it is believed that Google will also implement an updated set of API functions for third-party application developers. It is expected that the updates will allow for more flexible integration of Maps not only into Internet projects, but also into corporate software.