Today, on the Google LatLong Blog I learned about a feature of Google Maps Street View that I hadn’t noticed before. In Street View you can view geolocated user-contributed pictures. This enables Google Maps users to view more street level imagery than ever before. As was pointed out on the LatLong Blog, user-contributed imagery makes it possible to view streets, buildings, and natural landmarks that Google was not able to capture with their Street View car-mounted cameras.

To access the user-contributed Street View imagery, access Street View as you normally would. Then whenever an image appears in the upper-right corner of the screen click on it to view the user-contributed images. Try it out in map below.

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Here’s a video introduction to accessing user-contributed images in Street View.

Applications for Education
Navigating through user-contributed images in Street View is an improvement over standard Street View imagery. You can now take your students on a virtual tour of popular tourist destinations like Times Square, Mount Rushmore, or Old Faithful and show them geolocated imagery that they wouldn’t see in the stock Google Maps imagery.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Exploring Climate Change in Google Earth
Google Maps Labs – Try the Newest Options