Google Launches Undersea Street view

Google has introduced many cool new things to Street View that are markedly not street-esque--you might remember the trip down the Amazon, for example, or Kennedy Space Center, or Antarctica--but this one might take the cake. Google has introduced a bunch of new pictures into the ecosystem. But this time, they're showing you the depths of the ocean.

In collaboration with the Catlin Seaview Survey, Google has put together an incredible photo-safari of six different coral reefs.

Explained Google:

We've added the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don't have to be a scuba diver-or even know how to swim-to explore and experience six of the ocean's most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.

If you have any spare time this afternoon, you really should head over to the site and browse around. There really are some incredible images out there.

Google has been pushing maps and Street View to their limit. At this point, both products are beginning to resemble something completely different. They have become Google's hottest product, excepting Android, of course, and between the two of them they have provided an incredible virtual layer to the world. Once Google introduces its 3D maps, which will be algorithmically generated rather than hand-crafted as Apple's are, I'm willing to bet that Google will let you drive down any road in the world in real time via 3D models and street view photographs.

IO9 Photo by : Google