You Can Now Embed Street View and Photo Sphere Images From Google Maps

Google on Wednesday announced that it has added the ability to embed Street View and Photo Sphere images. It says it has also enabling the same capabilities 'programmatically' in Google Maps Embed API for developers and website owners.

The company says that these embeds are fully functional and use the new imagery viewer technology that powers Street View in the new Google Maps.

To embed a Street View image or a Photo Sphere, any user can simply click on the 'gear icon' in the bottom right corner of the image interface on Google Maps and can then choose the 'Share and embed image' option to get the HTML embed code for their website or blog, or for any place where HTML-based embed codes are supported.

The embedded Street View and Photo Sphere images can also be of custom size, and users can also choose from small, medium, and large-sized presets. Of course, the Street View and Photo Sphere images the user wants to embed need to be publicly available.

Apart from embedding Street View images or Photo Spheres found via Google Maps, users can also visit Google Maps' Views community, where other users have publicly shared Street View and Photo Sphere imagery. To embed an image from there, users will need to click through to the image of choice, then click on the share icon on the right - the 'Embed this image' option will pop up.

"Embedding a Street View or Photo Sphere works similarly to the Street View Service in Google Maps JavaScript API v3 - specify a lat/ lng or panorama ID to pick your location, plus heading and pitch to determine direction of the scene and angle of the camera," noted Ken Hoetmer, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs.

In March, the company had released Google Maps Embed API that "enables developers to generate HTML snippets that embed Google Maps within their own website", but it did not include Street View and Photo Sphere images.

Earlier this week, Google had announced the updated Google Play services 6.5 for Android developers that include several new features for Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Wallet, and Google Fit APIs.

The biggest new addition in Google Maps Android API is the maps toolbar that lets users get directions and turn by turn navigation without leaving the third-party app. The Google Play services 6.5 also brings the new 'lite mode' map option in Google Maps API.

"A lite mode map is a bitmap image of a map at a specified location and zoom level," explains Google's Android Developer blog.