Oh what a wonderful world! The most stunning Google Earth pictures as voted for by you
By Eddie Wrenn
A website which combines Google Earth with a simple ratings system allows users to find the most beautiful or unusual places on our planet.
Stratocam, designed by ex-Dreamworks and Google employee Paul Rademacher, takes the outstanding aerial photography employed by the search engine's mapping service and allows visitors to his site to up-vote or down-vote user-submitted 'finds'.
The photographs are randomly selected from 'snapshots' taken by users, and after a few clicks it becomes apparent just how varied, pretty, and colourful our little blue-green marble is.
Plane graveyard: Scrapped jets line the dry and dusty ground in Arizona
Caves in Faro, Portugal: A rocky beach sets the scene for a peaceful and tranquil area
Frond of that view: Palm Island in Dubai makes for a startling image from up above
The addictive site promises a different image, at different zoom-levels, with every click of the left or right arrows, the more votes an image gets, the more likely it is to be appear.
The images can be from anywhere in the world - from the snowy ice-caps of Iceland, to dusty airplane graveyards in Arizona.
Sometimes we see desolate images of rugged terrains, sometime you found yourself in a dense urban jungle of shops, roads and businesses, and appreciate the impact Man has had on our planet.
Hawaii, USA: The volcanic island gets plenty of upvotes on new website Stratocam
A river runs through it: An aerial view of the landscape surrounding Los Angeles shows houses and farms clustered around the water
This image of Saudi Arabia appears to show farming communities in the desert, stretching out over a wide landscape
More than an Eiffel: Paris gets the skyline treatment
Creator Rademacher is credited with creating the first Google mash-up, when he overlaid Google Maps with house-listings 'scraped' from popular listings website Craigslist.
He worked at Google from 2005 to 2010 before leaving to found a social software company called Tasty Labs.
An askew look at Budapest, Hungary: The quiet streets are dwarfed by a central church
City of canals: A typical day in Venice sees boats, ships and gondolas traversing the water highways
Is this lego? Crayons? or lorries waiting at a depot in Los Angeles? |
發表於 2012-3-27 04:54 AM
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