Here’s a great article about the history of Streetview, with photos of the early equipment used.  They pursued it because it was “interesting.”

The new multi-level feature allows your Google Trusted Photographer to create larger tours that are logically divided into separate sections, such as different floors of a single business. Look Inside Tulsa is fully certified and ready to go with this new feature. With the multi-level feature: The maximum tour size is increased for tours using this feature. Business areas that are separated physically far from one another can be included in the...

Google announced on Monday that they are releasing a new app on the latest Android operating system that will allow anyone to photograph spherical panoramas, which Google will process and include in Google Maps (with some restrictions).  The service lets you shoot a spherical panorama, upload it to your Picasa account, share it, and see it on Google Maps.  The intended effect is to have as many people as possible digitizing places and sharing...