First Underwater Panoramas in Google Maps

Very exciting stuff (click on the images to go straight to the maps in Google):

The first underwater panorama map from Google in the world, which is a quest which they have undertaken to become the first map makers to provide a comprehensive, accurate and usable map in the world.

Starting today, you can use Google Maps to find a sea turtle swimming among a school of fish, follow a manta ray and experience the reef at sunset—just as I did on my first dive in the Great Barrier Reef last year. You can also find out much more about this reef via the World Wonders Project, a website that brings modern and ancient world heritage sites online.

At the moment you can’t get too far deep into the water / reefs, however I’m sure once Google captures more imagery we’ll be able to explore the depths of the oceans with a couple of clicks of a mouse.

That’s pretty darn cool.

Mapping systems matter as they are the interface between online and offline worlds. We all know that Google is in direct competition with Apple—who will control the future of the mobile phone industry (where maps is an integral aspect of it’s ecosystem). You’ve seen all the speculation between Google and Apple maps on mobile phones. Apples strengths are of course it’s product design and retail marketing whilst Google’s strength is clearly information or geo data. Whoever can cover the whole globe comprehensively whilst providing an accurate and useful representation is likely to stay ahead.