Google showcases natural underwater beauty in new Street View images

By Christian de Looper June 11, 2019

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Turns out, you can use Google’s Street View for more than just exploring the actual street. Street View could already be used to explore underwater locations, but Google has expanded the feature to include a few new beautiful underwater destinations.

The new images, which are available in a Google Earth collection, aren’t just there to help people explore the beauty that’s under the ocean — they’re also aimed at reminding users of the impact that humans have had on the environment. Just as there are bright, vivid corals and beautiful underwater landscapes, the images also show bleached and dying coral, plastic, and so on.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

“We hope our new underwater Street View images, available today in a Google Earth collection, will encourage people to fall in love with the ocean — both its beauty and fragility — and want to protect it,” Lorna Parry, co-founder and managing director of Underwater Earth, said in a blog post.

In particular, the new Street View images show off the Great Barrier Reef’s Lizard Island, and the New Caledonia coral lagoons. According to Google, both images show off vivid and clear colors, but the fact that the colors are fluorescing means that the corals are failing to protect themselves from a warming ocean. Other images include the “Million Dollar Point” in Vanuatu, which is where the U.S. Army dumped jeeps and bulldozers after World War II.

As Google notes, if you’re inspired by the beauty of the images in the new Street View collection, there are steps you can tale to help preserve it. For example, you can make an effort to reduce your dependence on plastic and buy sustainably sourced fish, which will help make for a more sustainable marine life.

You can check out the new underwater Street View images for yourselves, along with any other underwater images, in this Google Earth collection. They’re also available in a new Street View category in Voyager, which can be found in Google Earth for Android, iOS, and on the web.

Of course, Google may soon have some competition when it comes to Street View. At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced that a Street View-like feature, called Look Around, would be coming to Apple Maps in iOS 13.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Christian de Looper

Contributor

Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

Mobile

Have a Google Pixel phone? You’re about to get these new features

A person holding the Google Pixel 8 Pro.

One of the great things about Google’s Pixel phones is how often the company sweetens the pot with its Pixel Feature Drops. While they’re not always the most exciting updates, every so often, we get some pleasant surprises; this month’s Feature Drop fits into that latter category with some new goodies that will be of particular interest to owners of phones in the recent Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 8 lineups (and of course the Google Pixel Fold).

That doesn’t mean older Pixel phones are entirely left out of the party, though. There’s at least one helpful enhancement here for the Pixel 6 and even some smaller improvements that go back to the Pixel 5a. Let's dig into everything that's new.
New features coming to Pixel phones
Circle to Search Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Mobile

Google just announced 8 big Android updates. Here’s what’s new

A photo of many Android figurines on a white wall.

At Moblie World Congress (MWC ) 2024, Google is bringing a healthy bunch of new features to Android. In line with the AI push all across the industry, some notable AI-driven enhancements are on the table. There are also a handful of core Android features that sound practically amazing.
The first in line is Gemini. The generative AI chatbot recently got a standalone app for Android, and now it’s headed for the Google Messages app. Users can chat with Gemini directly in the messaging app and use its generative capabilities for a host of things, like drafting replies, refining a message, and more.

Another feature that was showcased a while ago is finally ready for prime time. Android Auto is gaining support for message summarization for standalone texts and group chats, and it can also suggest replies. With a single tap, users will also be able to drop a message, start a call, and share an estimated arrival time. The idea is to deploy AI for crucial tasks so that it can minimize distractions while driving.
Lookout, an accessibility-centric feature for users with vision challenges, is also getting meaningful AI love. On Android phones, Lookout will now read AI-generated captions and descriptions for media content. For now, the AI boost to Lookout and Messages is limited to the English language.

Mobile

The Google Pixel Fold 2 just leaked. Here’s everything that’s new

Schematics of Google Pixel 2 according to leaks.

Google’s next foldable phone is going to be a screamer, and not solely for good reasons, if the latest leaks are to be believed. SmartPrix (via OnLeaks) has shared alleged renders depicting the Google Pixel Fold 2, and it looks like a mixed bag of regressive design and positive developments.
The biggest change compared to the first-gen Google Pixel Fold is a camera bump that ditches the stretched bar look on the current-gen Pixel smartphones. Instead, we now have a rectangular design with two rows of pill-shaped black outlines, hosting three camera lenses and a bunch of other sensors.
It’s a stark departure from the mainstream Pixel camera bar, and it revives a look that was last seen on the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4 series phones. Looks aside, the side placement also means the phone will keep wobbling if you place it on a flat surface. I’m not exactly a fan of this approach, to be honest.

Another notable change is the side profile. The curved edges of the Pixel Fold have been flattened, a look that will also appear on the Google Pixel 9 series phones, according to leaked renders.
But if you look closely and ignore the ugly camera hump shape, the Pixel Fold 2 looks identical to the OnePlus Open in its leathery black trim. The side rails, those curved bezels, and the front camera placement are all identical.
Even the ridge seems to have been lifted straight from the OnePlus Open, down to its polished metal aesthetics. It’s not a bad thing, as the OnePlus Open is one of the best-built phones I’ve ever used, and the form factor is an absolute joy to handle.
The most progressive change happens once the phone is opened. The thick bezels are gone, and what we see on the Pixel Fold 2 renders are uniformly thin bezels on all sides, a trend that we first noticed on the foldable phones offered by Oppo.