Vilmer
Posts: 451
Location: Argentina
Registered: 23 May 2007
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Tactus 360
Posts: 1245
Location: Tynset, Norway
Registered: 2 Sep 2010
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 1 Feb 2011 at 14:06 GMT
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Yes . . .
I think it is.
Jon
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No One
Posts: 501
Location: Sri Lanka
Registered: 14 May 2004
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 1 Feb 2011 at 14:07 GMT
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Thanks for noting this.
As usual, the 360 quality is extremely poor, not even color balanced which I think is kind of important in a room filled with Art. 
But Panic, don't think so, typical results from a mass volume over quality shoot, there is still room at the top.
Robert
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takeme360
Posts: 24
Location: Canada
Registered: 13 Nov 2008
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 1 Feb 2011 at 16:46 GMT
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Not time to panic. Users can create 360s with their iphones. But the quality vs. professional is night and day. Google is good at search, not 360s. Museums/other operators will pay for quality if they deem the product worth it. That's where the salesmen in all of us really has to shine, and have their numbers straight.
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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iam360Texas
Posts: 298
Location: Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Registered: 12 Jul 2006
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Re: Is it time to panic yet? - old saw
Posted: 1 Feb 2011 at 20:05 GMT
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First thoughts --- you gotta build a road.. and they will come.
First build the massive world panorama infrastructure... if there is wide acceptance then improve the image quality.
The new Google Earth 6.0x street view technique is improved with the black camera icons gone missing. Zoom in until the orange pegman appear in the upper right nav cluster. Click drag the pegman to the intersection you want to see at street view elevation.
Maybe it is just me.. but I think they even now mouse click drag the panorama seems to be inline with our typical viewer rotation method. OR maybe I am just getting accustomed to their technique.
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Guest
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Re: Is it time to panic yet? - old saw
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 3:53 GMT
updated: 14 Mar 2011 at 16:13 GMT
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Is it time to panic?
Of course not.
.... that is exactly the same thing the people over at yahoo, altavista and other search engine companies said when Google entered the scene. How could some students at a university ever threaten them, who were the kings of search?
History shows how that went.
The quality of the panos in those museum tours may not be top notch all over the line, but they have sure as heck done a good job on the user interface on the right side. (i) button. Access to speech, videos, floorplans and other relevant info. The zoomable images are also very high quality, and that is probably more important for THOSE jobs, than the panos themselves. Google wil not stop there, just because someone wants them to, or because some people think they are so special and artistic, that there is no way that any big company can ever touch the pedestal they have placed themselves on.
Good things will come from the work Google is doing, more exposure, more people will get to see and feel the photography in the gigapixel end of the playing field. Lots of good stuff will come from it, but it will also lead to a lot of bad things for many a professional who will no longer be able to get photo or pano jobs for museums and other high end places, simply because there will not be the same economical approach as there is with the free Google service, which brings the projects out in a massive way.... even if Google starts charging a nominal fee for the services, it would still be more attractive for many institutions that do not have much money to put into promoting their services.
Google will gain ground... and by doing so, someone else will have to lose ground. Maybe not right now, but when they get bigger in this and other fields of panorama photography.
Those who think nothing will change, that Google is just an innocent hobbyist organization who won't improve over time, and exceed the quality of the pro-end today, need to wake up. Google is not the same size today as it was 10 years ago. Nowhere close to it.
Why would they not grow equally in this field... they DO have a competitor they would like to beat (bing) and that will result in more quality and more features.
They have already moved IN from the streets, and there were many people who said they would never do that, because "their cars can not drive inside the hotel lobbies" and other such crap that no sensible thinking human being should ever utter. They are not only in from the streets, but they are making complete tours inside museums, with high quality imagery... and you better remember that they are only beginning!
They will continue, no matter what, so we can "fear" them, or we can try to find ways to stay ahead of them... but they will become a very massive presence in our field, and it helps absolutely nothing to continue being in denial mode.
There is a discussion going on elsewhere about what panoramas should be called, so that people will know what the images contain... since we content makers are calling things by all kinds of names:
VR
Virtual Tour
Virtual Image
Interactive Image
Virtual Interactive Image
360 pano
360° Surround Interactive Panoramic Virtual iPix Omni Image Tour
..... etc. etc. etc.
"Everyone" knows what "Google Street View" means. Piggybacking on the "Google Street View" could be done by calling our panoramas "World View" panos. Street View is limited to the streets... World View is limited to ... the world.
... or we can just continue to split hairs and try to invent some new words that make no sense to people out in the world.... I have done my own share in that department over time  ... and it's not the way to go.
End of rant... you haven't been served long rants by me in a while since I have been way too busy with too many projects in the past 2 months.
Back to my agenda.
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Marco W
Posts: 111
Location: Bali, Indonesia
Registered: 12 Feb 2010
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Re: Is it time to panic yet? - old saw
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 8:06 GMT
updated: 2 Feb 2011 at 8:07 GMT
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Think there is no need to panic (yet).. Even though we don't know how far Google want to (and can) go with making the world visible on-line, there will be space for professional panorama photographers for years to come i think.
You can also see it positive.. As a promotion of our product 
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chrisd666
Posts: 16
Location: Toronto, Canada
Registered: 4 Jan 2011
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Re: Is it time to panic yet? - old saw
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 13:54 GMT
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As an amateur photographer new to the 360 pano world, here is my perspective looking in from the outside.
I agree with Marco. I don't think Google is going to be heading into the real estate and commercial photography market anytime soon, and by them increasing their pano exposure of public spaces, it will only serve to whet the consumer appetite and increase demand for commercial pano work.
Chris
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DennisS
Posts: 1292
Location: Los Anglels, United States
Registered: 1 Sep 2007
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Re: Is it time to panic yet? - old saw
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 14:32 GMT
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If you are a professional doing panoramas for a living, you will need to do what every other business does when there is new competition. You either update your business plan and make your product stand out or close your doors and go away. Real businesses never panic but take care of business.
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: Is it time to panic yet? - old saw
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 15:38 GMT
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Until Google will provide the virtual images for the museums to use on the museum's own website there will be work for non-Google virtual photographers.
The purpose of the whole Streetview program is to generate more traffic and longer visits to Google, so more people will see and use their very profitable AdWords text ads
I doubt they'll be sharing their virtual images anytime soon.
Google isn't competing with people who produce virtual tours for profit, they're competing with Yahoo, Bing and other search engines for ad revenue
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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mr vr
Posts: 99
Location: Ireland
Registered: 18 Sep 2008
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 17:06 GMT
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Really Doug?
You can already embed Google streetview and google maps into your own website.
Anyone who thinks this doesn't effect them is sticking their heads in the sand. As technology progresses, it will become easier for google to produce better quality tours, and even quicker for them to publish them.
There will always be virtual tour photographers, but I believe the price people can charge will go down and down in the coming years.
Saying that, what ever happened to Googles steetview for businesses? I've not seen anything since I first heard about it 12 months ago.
Matthew
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 17:32 GMT
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mr vr
How many museums in the Google Art Project have embedded the Google Streetview Tours into into their websites?
Any of them???
Google treats stuff like this as a commodity, massive volume is the way they think and work.
Fine Arts Museums are the antithesis of "a commodity"
Whatever technology improvements happen, individual photographers will make more of them than the Googles of the world and always produce a better product.
So Google will always be the low quality image product.
I suspect Google Streetview for Businesses is dead, because the businesses wanted to use the images on their own site and Google was too restrictive.
That turned into too much effort for not enough income.
This is a company that measures its revenue sources in the millions and billions. A few hundred dollars from a few stores along the avenue just doesn't fit Google's ROI paradigm
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 18:21 GMT
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Matthew
The whole premise that Google could get a lot of busnesses to pay for virtual tours is seriously flawed
There's a reason virtual tours are popular in the Lodging and Real Estate businesses and very few other businesses, they're selling or renting "space" and need to show that "space"
What's the benefit to a store of showing the interior of a;
shoe store...they need to show the shoes not the store
mens clothing store...they need to show the clothes
womens clothing store...same as mens
moving theater...people want to see the movie, not the theater
restaurant...they need to show the food
furniture store...they need to show the furniture
office supply store (Staples)...they need to show the thousands of items
Wal-Mart...we Americans already know what a WalMart looks like inside
I did a presentation to the Albuquerque Convention Center yesterday about doing a virtual tour and still photos for them.
About 5% was about the photography and technology. They liked my work
The other 95% was about ways they could use the virtual tour to sell their space; guided site tours over the phone & Interent by their sales staff, mentioning the Virtual Tour in their print advertising, CD bases tours that could be included in marketing packages and used at trade shows to tour the facility from a booth, provide links to the tour to other organizations that promote the Center, etc.
The types of businesses than can benefit from Virtual Tours are pretty limited
That's why Google Streetview for Businesses wasn't viable from the very beginning.
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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mr vr
Posts: 99
Location: Ireland
Registered: 18 Sep 2008
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Re: Is it time to panic yet?
Posted: 2 Feb 2011 at 19:35 GMT
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Doug,
You're missing my point.
As google push further and further towards providing FREE 'streetview' style products, it is de-valuing the whole industry.
You seem to think that you are invincible to what Google is trying to do, but you're tours are not that good that you are untouchable, even from Googles low quality product.
There are also so many things wrong with your facts, I don't have the energy to point them out to you anymore.
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