Google Maps will now let anyone add photos to Street View
The company says it wants to expand its coverage of communities and locations all over the world.
Google is now allowing anyone to contribute images to Street View in Google Maps .
Street View is a popular feature on the Maps platform that allows people to see what a location looks like on the ground. In the past, these connected photos were recorded by the famous Street View cars, but Google says anyone with the app will now be able to contribute. This development comes thanks to Google's growing augmented reality technology, which will "automatically rotate, position and create a series of connected photos."
"Now that anyone can create their own connected Street View photos," said Stafford Marquardt, product manager of Street View, in a blog post, "we can bring better maps to more people around the world, capturing places that aren't on Google Maps or that have seen rapid change."
The same blog post says Google will augment and update existing information, such as publicly posted business hours, using these photos. It'll also automatically blur out people's faces and license plates.
Google said it'll remove any images that people submit that violate its Maps User Contributed Content Policy. People can also report photos for review.
See also: Google Maps now lets you make calls, play music with just your voice. Here's how
