Filed under: Internet, Features, Search
EveryScape beta launches: not quite a Google Street View Killer (yet)
This summer we got our first look at EveryScape, a new startup that makes Google Street View look like child's play. But now that the company has launched a public beta, we have to say, we're not convinced Google has anything to worry about. Yet.
EveryScape certainly looks beautiful. 3D panoramas of real-life street views are stitched together from special photos taken atop EveryScape vehicles. Users can also submit their own photos to help flesh out details. At launch EveryScape has scenes from 4 cities: New York, Boston, Miami Beach, and Aspen.
You can click an Auto Drive button to take a guided tour of a city, or select "You Drive" to take control of the "wheel" yourself. There is also a nice directory of popular locations, including sightseeing spots, shopping, food and night life. In some locations, you can even click on an icon within the EveryScape interface to get a pop up button with more information.
But there's one big problem with EveryScape. It's slow. Really, really slow. Periodically during our test drive, a message would pop up telling us that the site was experiencing heavy traffic, which was affecting performance. So hopefully EveryScape is just experiencing growing pains. But while EveryScape provides much more detailed imagery and information than Google Street View (for selected locations), Google has a huge server farm which is capable of handling high traffic volumes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mapper99 said 1:23PM on 10-29-2007
There are already some interesting "finds" surfacing via Everyscape. Check out the infamous "Crobar" club finds here:
http://streetviewgallery.corank.com
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michael said 5:25PM on 10-29-2007
Any alternative to Google Maps is a good one.
I'll definitely take a look at EveryScape.
For those of you who don't like Google Maps, there's also Live Maps, a much better site that focuses on the details of imagery maps. Quite as good as GMaps.
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Ella said 9:08PM on 11-26-2007
I think startups will find it difficult to compete with Google. Although it's a good thing that the competition is tight. There is another startup called MapJack.com which is also cool. Pretty similar to Everyscape.
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