Walk virtually anywhere in the world with Google Street View. Take a walk on the Ramblas in Barcelona or look at what the neighborhood where you played as a child looks like from behind your PC.
What is Street View?
Google Street View is a virtual representation of Google Maps and is made up of millions of panoramic images that you can walk through. The Street View images come from two sources: from Google itself and from so-called ‘contributors’. These are private individuals who upload their 360-degree photos to Google Street View.
Open Street View
Search for a place or address in Google Maps, then launch Street View.
- surf to www.google.nl/maps
- Search for a place.
- Click in the search bar.
- Type a place.
- Press the Enter key.
- Click on the yellow marker at the bottom right and hold down the mouse button.
- Drag the yellow man to the place you want to explore. Place the figure on a blue line or blue dot.
- Release the mouse button.
Street View opens and it looks like you are standing in the street.
Looking around in a virtual world
Look around the virtual world using the mouse or keyboard.
- Move the mouse pointer over the street.
- An arrow appears in some places. Click where an arrow is visible to move in that direction. This can also be done without the mouse. Then use the up and down arrow keys to continue walking.
- Don’t walk but look around you?
- Click on the environment and hold down the mouse button.
- The hand changes into an arrow pointing to four directions. Drag the mouse left, right, up or down.
- Click at the end of the street to go directly to the end of the street.
- Zoom in or out via + and – below the compass at the bottom right. When a gray square area appears at the cursor, you can click on it and zoom in.
- At the bottom left is a small part of the map. With that you can orientate yourself a bit in the 3D view. The man moves on the map as soon as you start walking again.
- During your virtual walk you may encounter symbols on buildings and other locations. Such as a picture of a knife and fork, a shopping bag or a museum. Click on it to get more information about the object.
Ready to look around? Press the Esc key to turn off Street View.
Share location
You can also share the Street View images with others. Handy if you want to let someone else know exactly what the street looks like.
- Click on the three dots next to the address.
- click on Share or embed image.
- click on Copy link or use the Twitter or Facebook buttons if you want to share the location via any of these social media.
- Follow the instructions or paste the link where you want to use it. For example in an email.
Print location
Need a reminder for the road, or do you just like to keep the street scene on paper? Then Street View has a print option.
- In Street View, click on the three dots next to the address.
- click on Print.
- Start typing to add comments to the printout.
- click on Print and follow the printing instructions of your own printer.
Back in time
Google Street View also allows you to take steps in time. In many locations you can see what the street looked like up to ten years ago. Nice to see, for example, the radical metamorphosis of the station area near Rotterdam Central. Read more about this in the tip ‘Back in time with Google Street View’.