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"When Google launched its panoramic photomapping service back in 2007, it was the first time many netizens had the chance to explore a swathe of detailed street-level photos from their armchairs.\nIn the U.S., Street View's rivals now include Microsoft's Silverlight-powered \"Streetside\" via Bing Maps and MapQuest's 360 View. Elsewhere in the world, other international sites offer rival photomapping for their particular part of the globe, even as the reach of Google's Street View steadily increases.\nWe've picked our five favorite websites from around the world that offer extensive street level imagery from places as varied as Munich, Mae Hong Son, Moscow and Miskolc. So grab your Panama hats and get ready to hit the virtual sidewalks of streets many, many miles away, then let us know your favorite services in the comments below. \n\nCity8 \n\n\n\n\nThere are a number of Chinese services that offer street level photography of the country, with one of the first being \"virtual tour\" software designer Easypano's City8. It claims to have beaten Street View to the web by a year.\nCity8 currently offers fairly comprehensive imagery for more than 40 Chinese cities, however, navigating the site can be a little tricky unless you read and speak the lingo, which sadly, we don't. The photo maps won't display if you're viewing the site through Google Translate (in Firefox anyway) so you'll have to navigate back and forth (or go for a dual screen option) to find out what you're looking at. However, the photos of everyday China are fascinating so it's definitely worth the hassle if you have an interest in the People's Republic.\n\n\n\n\n\nNORC \n\n\n\n\nNORC's photo mapping services cover Eastern and Central Europe. Currently, you can see landmarks and parts of cities in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Russia (Russia is accessed via a separate site \u2014 Mappi).\nLuckily for those not blessed with multi-lingual skills, the site is available in English, making zipping round the back streets of Innsbruck, Austria a breeze. NORC ups the value by making most map views available as 3D images \u2014 if you have the correct glasses. You can identity which maps are 3D by the glasses icon on the top left of the display.\n\n\nMapJack \n\n\n\n\nMapjack.com offers a slightly random mix of imagery from a few select areas on America's West Coast and parts of Thailand.\n\"What others have done with NASA budgets and Star Wars-like equipment, we've done on a shoestring budget, along with a few trips to Radio Shack,\" the site claims.\nThose Radio Shack trips were worth the effort however, as Mapjack's image quality exceeds that of Street View with particularly clear, bright scenes and vivid colors. We recommend Mapjack for seeing crisp photos of the Yosemite National Park and for soaking up the brilliant street scenes of Chiang Mai.\n\n\n\n\n\nSightWalk \n\n\n\n\nThis German website offers street level photos of Bonn, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart. Thankfully it's also available in English.\nWe were quite impressed with SightWalk's option to share locations with your social circle via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail. It also overlays map data with points of interest along with Wikipedia links (which are in German).\nThe site is easy to navigate \u2014 we were headed down the Potsdammer Platz within seconds of selecting Berlin from the homepage \u2014 and the imagery is in decent quality.\n\n\n\n\n\nYandex \n\n\n\n\nAs Russia's leading search engine, Yandex started a photographic index of Eastern European cities starting with the biggest ones: Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kiev. It has just recently expanded to also offer panoramic views for Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Chelyabinsk.\nThe service is in Russian, which can make navigation fairly difficult, but the clarity of the street maps (designed by the geek legends of Art Lebedev Studios) make the site less of a challenge to use.\nWhether you want to see the exotic roofline of the the Kremlin as it appears from the street, or view the brutal tower blocks that pepper the cities, Yandex is a great place to go, especially considering Google is yet to get its camera-equipped cars across the Russian border.\n\n\n\n\n\nBONUS: VideoStreetView \n\n\n\n\nThis is a bonus site because it actually offers 360-degree panoramic videos. In a nutshell, this Swiss firm has recorded footage as it drives down streets, and as you watch the clip you can pan around at will, looking left and right, up, down and even behind you. The commercial possibilities for panoramic video are really quite exciting for lots of different areas and industries, so be sure to check this out to see what the future might hold.\n\n\nFor more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n\nMore Travel resources from Mashable:\n- 11 Essential iPhone Apps for a Road Trip- HOW TO: Use Social Media for Travel Research- HOW TO: Find Your Way Around Any New City- HOLIDAY SURVIVAL GUIDE: 20+ Tools for Family Travel- How to Turn Your Business Trip into a Social Media Experience"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/06/13/street-view-around-world/>