Webware posts advance info about Earthmine, a street-view urban imagery system similar to Google Street View, but with some advanced features. Earthmine uses still photography instead of video, so the image quality is supposedly higher than that of Google Street View. More interestingly, they’re combining the image data with laser range finding to both correct perspective views and provide location data for the objects in the photos. Privacy concerns will be addressed by automatic blurring of features like faces and license plates. The mapping service will be sold commercially, but a consumer-friendly portal will supposedly launch later this summer. Other street view services linked to in the article are Microsoft’s Live Search Maps , EveryScape, and HopStop .
Addendum: According to Download Squad, you’ll also be able to tag and label objects in the view.
alternative in central Europe is NORC, e.g. http://www.norc.at for Austra, http://www.norc.cz for Czech Rep., http://www.norc.sk for Slovakia, http://www.norc.pl for Poland or http://www.norc.ro for Romania