Google Views is no more, with some of its functionality transferred over to a new-look Google Maps, with more changes to come.
Old Views profiles have moved across to the Maps site, with some of Views’ bits and pieces incorporated into the left-hand dropdown menu.
Views was basically a home for geotagged photos people could upload for use in ‘Photo Spheres’, emerging as panoramas and the likes. It seems like an attempt to do away with a niche site that was probably lagging, with Maps clearly more popular.
By getting rid of Views, Google isn’t hoping to do away with that process, merely make it more inclusive with where the images ultimately end up. This will, one presumes, encourage more people to get involved.
The changes are aimed at giving users “more exposure” for profiles and uploads, with plans to bring in a tool to show how many people are viewing images.
“With the Views website now offline, today marks the beginning of an exciting new adventure for those who enjoy sharing great, geotagged imagery,” said the Google Maps team.
Of course, for those like me who aren’t really into logging images into Google, there’s still plenty to be gained from this.
For example, other peoples’ images should be more visible and up to date.
As Engadget explains, this makes Google’s life a lot easier.
“It can now surface a whole bunch of 360-degree images for places that it hasn’t yet invaded with its cameras. Think of it almost like a crowdsourced Street View.”
