Microsoft Street Slide makes more sense than hopping around Google's bubbles

As the video above explains, moving around panoramic views of a street is great if you can go "bubble to bubble" of a panorama, looking for what you want. That is, a panorama with up and down info is much like a bubble. But if you want to "slide" down the street, you want a more linear view of that street, and what's in the sky or on the ground really isn't that important.

Microsoft Research is really onto something here, allowing you to zoom out of a street view and enter a linear representation of that street, complete with signage for businesses and street names, etc. As with all competition (in this case obviously Microsoft is going after Google Street View), the battle for online supremacy is going to be awesome for the consumer. I can't wait for this to be available! For now it's just a presentation at SIGGRAPH.

[via Switched]

Tags: microsoft, research, siggraph, slide, street