Google Street View wants you to get involved

Soon, all web users will be able to contribute to Street View (picture shows a car driver in Japan). — Google/AFP

Google is hoping to get web users actively involved in making its Street View 360° virtual navigation app even more exhaustive. Soon, anyone and everyone will be able to upload their own photos to the app, which will then be processed and inserted by Google with no need for any advanced equipment.

Soon, any user of Google's Street View app will be able to capture their own imagery of a precise location – or an entire street – simply by means of their smartphone camera. In other words, all web users will be on hand to help grow the app's already immense database. That has two main advantages for Google: first, users on the ground can capture places previously unmapped in the app, and second, they can keep places already featured up to date.