Australians are invited to help decide the Google Trike’s next stops across Australia by nominating our country's most interesting and beautiful places.
The first Google Street View Trike has landed in Australia to capture the continent’s most beautiful off-road locations. It made its inaugural outing to Taronga Zoo, capturing images of Taronga’s wildlife and Sydney's spectacular harbour that will be shared with millions of internet users around Australia and the world via Google Maps.
Street View, launched in Australia in August 2008, lets Aussies take a virtual walk down nearly every public road in Australia using imagery collected by a car with a specially mounted camera on top. The street view Trike will help Google gather images of off-the-beaten track and pedestrian-only locations across the country, taking street view beyond road-accessed landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge to places like Taronga Zoo and perhaps even national parks.
The Trike consists of a modified bicycle mounted with a Street View camera and GPS system. Google's Street View Trike cyclists have been specifically recruited on the basis of quads of steel, and are now ready and waiting to ride the 110-kilogram bike in different locations around the country.
The zoo's General Manager Marketing, Guest and Commercial Operations, Paul Davies, said: "Taronga Zoo is at the forefront of world zoo operations and is leading the way in partnering with Google. For the first time ever, anyone with internet access across the globe can see the amazing animals Taronga cares for and be inspired to help our conservation efforts to protect wildlife.”
Google now needs help to tell it where to take the Trike next. It is inviting Aussies to take part in an online poll where they can suggest where they'd like the Trike to explore during its time in Australia.
Google Australia Engineering Manager Raul Vera said: "The Street View Trike will help us to create an even more comprehensive virtual atlas of Australia. We're lucky enough to live in a country with some of the most spectacular natural environments and architectural features on the globe, and the Trike will allow us to get off-road to share these marvels with people around Australia and the world.
"Collecting imagery at the iconic Taronga Zoo today is a huge thrill, and we're so excited that Taronga is among the first zoos in the world to share their environments online. Now we want Australians to share with us their favourite off-the-beaten-track spots of beauty and interest, so we can send the Trike there to highlight them on the world stage."
Nominations could include anything from Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens to Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia. Ideas can be submitted online at www.google.com.au/trike with entries closing on Monday 8 February 2010.