Monday, February 02, 2015

Virtual Tours with Google Business Photos


Google Business Photos (Google's indoor Street View imagery of businesses) is a great resource for businesses to promote themselves on Google Maps and for customers to take a tour of a business before they visit.

It is also a great resource for developers to provide users with a view of the inside of featured buildings and businesses. For example, Royal Caribbean has created an impressive virtual tour of its newest cruise liner, the Quantum of the Seas.

Discover Quantum Class allows you to explore the cruise liner on Street View, providing a unique glimpse into the ship's facilities and passenger cabins. You can use the menu at the top left-hand side of the street view imagery to navigate around the ship. The menu allows you to explore the many restaurants, bars and other facilities on board and to take a look inside a few of the different classes of passenger cabins available.


C Inside Media has created a very impressive guided Street View tour of HMS Cavalier. The application uses Google Maps Street View in conjunction with a narrated audio guide to provide a virtual tour of the ship and its facilities.

The HMS Cavalier is a retired C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, which served in World War II. Using the HMS Cavalier Guided Tour you can explore the ship using the custom Street View imagery. This allows you to explore all over the ship using Google's interactive panoramic imagery.

Being able to explore the Engine Room, Captain's Cabin and the Petty Officer's Mess is impressive enough on its own. However, as you explore HMS Cavalier you can also listen to an audio guided tour of the ship and what life was like on board.

Use the menu at the top right of the Street View to navigate to the different rooms. While touring the ship also look out for the colored overlays which sometimes appear on the Street View images. If you click on these you can also watch videos about the ship.


See Inside PDX is a great way to explore Portland businesses on Google Maps. Users of the map can browse the indoor Street Views of Portland by selecting the businesses directly from a Google Map. If you are feeling lucky you can select the 'random' option and be transported to the inside of a random business.

Is is also possible to search See Inside PDX by keyword. So, for example, if you fancy a meal out you can just search for 'restaurants' and preview the inside of all the listed restaurants to find the one that takes your fancy.


The Zombie Manor is an 18th Century English country house that is now haunted by the living dead. At weekends teams of zombie hunters pay good money to risk life and limb by taking on the zombies in the Zombie Manor. The safer option is to visit the manor house for free on Street View.

Zombie Sound Experienz uses the Business Photos Street View tour from the Zombie Manor in Drayton to create a creepy virtual tour, with full 3d sound. The custom Street View tour was created for Drayton Manor by 360 Agency, who also created the Street View tour of Diagon Alley for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.

As you progress through this zombie filled virtual Street View tour you can actually hear the zombies pursuing you. As you visit the different rooms in the Zombie Manor you will hear a variety of creepy sounds. Different zombies and rooms have different sounds attached to them, which get louder or quieter as you approach or travel away from them.

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