Google has successfully gathered the scattered real world into a portable virtual world. It has contributed a lot by working beyond human expectations. Services like Street View and online mapping makes it all more easier for people to taste the fun and explore the world’s street by sitting in their office or home with few clicks.
But the world is full of technologists and brainier who keep on brain storming to make some extraordinary , unique and innovative services to facilitates the habitats of mother Earth.
Considering the “Street View “ feature (an interactive map of major cities’ street) by Google and Windows Live Search, a startup decided to extend this interactivity and degree of independency to an extent level.
EveryScape, a Massachusetts based startup, has launched an online mapping service that allows users to explore and go inside shops and restaurants. The feature enables users to go and explore beyond streets and roads, that is not yet introduced by any search engine or service.
EveryScape allows users to easily navigates through various neighbourhoods and tourist sites. A special icon is designed to support the main theme of going inside a building by clicking and dragging a cursor.
The company works by individually hiring contractors and making them trained to operate specialized equipment. These “destination ambassadors� worked on assigned regions and are paid per mile to map. An extra commission is also paid to them whenever they are able to convince any business to have its interior photographs.
Jim Schoonmaker, Chief Executive of the company, expects that the involvement of locals in the project would “enable the world to make world�. When talking about the service, he said:
"While Google has focused their technology on building a better map, we wanted to do more and replicate the experience of actually being somewhere
While the idea of convincing businesses is worth to discuss. Ryan, who is an owner of a Sports bar, praised the idea of getting his business live on web as it will help to go beyond horizon and everyone can virtually pay a visit and would be able to view a glimpse of a bar with few clicks.
"It’s absolutely worth the price of the lease, We have a very nice private party room upstairs and whenever people call to see if they can have a party there, it was very hard for me to describe it. Now I just tell them to go to the site, and they can take a look around. It’s a big help."
But EveryScape in its beta phase, still has bundles of challenges in its way. The company that has already raised $7 million of funds, needs to extent its mapping capabilities to other popular destinations where “privacy laws� are more suppressive. As European Union has already subjected such kind of service by Google as a technology hole, it would be harder for Everyscape to peep into huge buildings and businesses. Though Schoonmaker seems to be much more ambitious and faithful and regarded the service as a powerful tool.
