Today, Google.com sent me an interesting press release. They’ve announced that their service “Street View” is now available in Montana. At first glance, it appears that a great deal of ‘metropolitan’ Montana is included in this release.

What is Street View anyway?

Street View is a part of Google Maps. There are 3 main types of views in Google maps that include:

1. The standard map view (similar to looking at an atlas)
2. A satellite/aerial view that shows all the topography
3. A hybrid view that shows the satellite view with street names overlayed.

Now, with the introduction of Street View for Montana you can also see 360-degree street level images of cities, towns and regions in our neck of the woods. Previously Street View was only available in larger cities such as San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

You can activate Street View from any Google map by dragging the small orange “pegman” icon (located at the top left, above the zoom slider) over the map. Blue outlines will indicate where the street level vantage point is available.

Here’s a brief video overview of Street View and how it works…

So why should you care?

You should care because it introduces some unique aspects for your Bozeman, Montana website design. Let’s say for example that you are a hotel here in Montana. You’ve written about some of the tourist attractions nearby your lodge and you’ve shown the location using a traditional Google map. Now you can also show a virtual tour of sorts of nearby parks, attractions, shopping… the list goes on.

• Integrate it with your driving directions to make it easier to see the streets that accompany your directions.
• Show ease of access to those who may have disabilities (think medical office), to industrial partners (think delivery access), or if your business is located in an area of town that is considered difficult to get to or park at.
• Offer it as a tool to online users. If you’re a realtor, property developer, chamber of commerce or other community organization use Google Street View to let your web visitors explore neighborhoods, parks, business locations. Business associations can let their website visitors “walk” the downtown area where they are located.
• Here are ten other Street View Business Tips from Google.

Instead of me just telling you about this service, I’ve put together a few links to show you.

• Downtown Bozeman Map (Tracy and Main St.)
• Map of MSU – Bozeman (Grant and S. 11th St.)
• Old Faithful – Yellowstone National Park
• Going to the Sun Rd. – Glacier National Park
• Montana Capitol Building – Helena, MT
• Flathead Lake (as seen from Bigfork, MT)

Major Montana cities included in this release:

• Bozeman, MT
• Belgrade, MT (Just a little bit of Jackrabbit Ln.)
• Missoula, MT
• Billings, MT
• Great Falls, MT
• Helena, MT
• Butte, MT
• Kalispell, MT

Notably absent however is the ski resort destination of Big Sky, MT. While certainly not a major city, it is one of the most beautiful drives in Montana up Highway 191 to Lone Mountain.

How do I add Google Street View to my website?

Incorporating Google’s Street View is very easy and quite inexpensive for casual uses such as showing your business location. More advanced uses, such as using Street View to browse real estate listings, will require integration of your website with the Google Maps API framework.

Contact us for a few quick tips on setup and a free estimate.

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