Electronic maps have become increasingly pervasive in modern society. Electronic maps were initially distributed through computer-readable storage media and installed and viewed locally on customers' personal computers. Now electronic maps are often provided through web-based map services. In this way, users can view the electronic maps using a web browser. In some cases, these web-based map services also provide interactive functionality, such as zooming in and out of maps, navigating directionally (e.g., north, west, east, south) within the maps, and determining driving directions between two or more points on the maps.
Early electronic maps provided road maps that showed simple graphical renderings of streets and street names. These road maps were primarily used for providing driving directions. In some cases, these road maps also showed points of interest, such as restaurant, parks, museums, and the like. However, the points of interest were typically represented with merely text and/or a generic icon. More recent electronic maps have provided more detailed maps. In particular, these newer electronic maps may show satellite imagery, aerial photography, topographical data, and three-dimensional representations of buildings and other structures in the physical world. Thus, for example, the user can view a realistic representation of a restaurant's structure on the map rather than a generic icon representing the restaurant.
Some Internet-based map services now provide panoramic views of street locations. Through these panoramic views, a user can view and/or navigate street-level images within a three-dimensional representation of the physical world. For example, a user may navigate around a three-dimensional representation of a street and view structures along the street as if the user were actually walking or driving on the street.
One of the challenges with presenting panoramic views of street locations is providing a user interface that allows the user to intuitively navigate the three-dimensional representation as if the user were navigating the real world. However, unlike the real world where the number of views is virtually limitless, the three-dimensional representation is typically composed of a finite number of images (e.g., photographs). As a result, the optimal view at any given location in the three-dimensional representation may not be easily apparent.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.