Seznam begins mapping for online street-level Panorama project
The largest Czech internet portal Seznam.cz has started work on a project to put panoramic views of every street, lane and alley in the country online. Entitled Panorama, the project is similar to Google’s Street View which only covers parts of the country. But Panorama’s creators say some of its features, and mainly its massive scope, will exceed anything available today. In this edition of Marketplace, I talk to Adam Chvaja, the product manager of Seznam’s mapping service, Mapy.cz.
“In other words, the more details we bring, the more people use it. Street-level panoramic pictures bring much more details, so that’s why we have launched this project.”
What is the ultimate goal of the project?
“We want to bring panoramic street-level picture of every little street in every town and village in the Czech Republic. That’s unprecedented actually, that’s something unique here.”
Does it make any economic sense for you? Well, it must make because I guess you would not be doing it otherwise. But what’s in it for Seznam?
“I would say that Panorama will not be the only outcome. We will also produce 3D maps. The Panorama photos can be presented to users as such but they could also become part of the 3D world we will present in the coming years. That’s the ultimate goal. It’s virtual reality which will allow users to move around, to fly over the street and then dive in the street and see the street-level photos.”
But will be commercially profitable for your firm?
“The Mapy.cz service is not something that would directly bring profit for Seznam, the benefits are indirect through other services. Seznam.cz has more than 30 online services, and many of them use our maps. That’s where we are making the profit.”
“We have two contractors with five cars driving around the streets right now. Since May which is when it all started, we have gathered some 10 or 20 terabytes of raw data which we are now processing and creating panoramic pictures for the web.”
Which parts of the country will be the first to go online, and which are you leaving for later stages?
“The priorities are set according to people’s real interests. From our logs we know which parts of the country people are most interested in, and that’s where we started. These include some tourist destinations, castles, centres of big cities, and so on.
“In big cities, it’s more difficult to take panoramic photos because cars must go slower than in villages and small towns because of traffic lights and heavy traffic, so cities are really difficult. So although we have started with big cities, they might not be the first to go online.”
Do you see from the logs that foreigners use Mapy.cz as well or it is mostly Czechs?
“No, the vast majority of our users are based in the Czech Republic. Seznam.cz is a company that focuses on Czech users. That’s why we don’t have really have foreign-language versions of our services. We could have that, it’s not that difficult but our focus is on Czech users.”
When will Panorama with all its features be put online?
“Panorama itself should be put online later this year, in the autumn or winter at the latest. But as part of the big 3D project, it will be available next year.”
“The major advantage for Czech users will be its wide coverage. As I said, we are planning to cover every little street in every village and town. That’s unique. But there are also some other interesting things. Panorama will have a very high density of the photos. Our cars will deliver photos taken every three meters. Other projects often have 10-, 20- or even 50-metre gaps between the individual shots.”
What will that mean for users? Does it mean they will see greater details?
“I would say you would see around every corner. If you take a photo every 50 metres, you will not see into many streets around you. But in our case, three meters is very dense.”
That might lead to questions about privacy concerns. Google has issues with the Czech personal data protection agency, and had to make some adjustments. How do you deal with privacy concerns?
“We are of course in touch with the Czech authorities who instructed us on how to deal with these issues. We are planning to put up a website for people to enter their requirements so that their property and belongings be blurred or left out. We also have a website which informs the public about where out mapping cars are, and where they will be so that you can actually prepare.”
Is that a common request – that people want their houses blurred?
“We have received some requests of this kind when people email us, asking us to leave out their property from mapping. But I think that given the distance we have covered so far, and how few individual requests we have received, it’s so no common. It can also be counterproductive – if you see that the whole street is online, and one house is missing, it could be interesting for criminals.
“Also, drivers of the mapping vehicles report people in fact often have the opposite reaction. They wave to the cameras and pose for the camera; they like to be captured in our Panorama.”
“Unfortunately, we have to comply with the requirements of the authorities and bluer the faces of all the people.”
What other plans does Mapy.cz have for the future besides Panorama?
“I already mentioned the 3D maps, which is the biggest project which we are planning to do next year, the 3D virtual world. But we are also focusing on another issue that is interesting for our users which is traffic and information about the situation on the roads, not only for the web but also for mobile map applications.”
