Explore virtual museums around the world, viewing artworks at amazing zoom levels... all online, all free!

Whether you are an art lover, a graphic designer, or just an average Joe, overseas travel is always something incredible, and an opportunity to be grabbed if and when it ever arrives.
If, however you cannot see yourself jetting off anywhere anytime soon, but you still want to feel just a little like you have been touring some exotic European capital, then head on over to http://www.googleartproject.com/.

Google Art Project, as the name accurately suggests, is a free, Google powered tool which can be used to take virtual tours of a number of famous museums around the world.

In a similar fashion to the Google's now famous Street View, you can literally (virtually) navigate around inside each room of a museum, and then zoom in on a particular artwork or piece of particular interest.
It has to be seen to be believed - the zoom levels are incredible, allowing you to view even the tiniest cracks in each canvas.
Check this out...:

From this...

To this...

To this...!

I just have to keep asking myself - what more can they do with technology?
To use just Google as an example, when Google Earth launched in 2005, jaws dropped all over the place.
I remember clients of mine spending entire days just exploring the planet and discovering little known locations all over the globe...

Now it's virtual museums.
What's next?

Thx 2 Maggy for this :)

Related articles

• Google Art Project Walks Through Global Art Museums Street-View-Style [Art] (lifehacker.com)
• Google's Street View takes in art around the world (cbc.ca)
• Bits: Google Takes Street View Into Art Museums (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Google Unveils Museum Art Project with Virtual Tours (pamil-visions.net)
• Google Art Project Is Street View for Galleries and Museums (wired.com)
• Explore Art Museums Google Street View Style (instantfundas.com)
• World's greatest art galleries now on Google Street View (telegraph.co.uk)
• Bits: Google Takes Street View Into Art Museums (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)

Read More

Even the Google Streetview guy is blowing a Vuvuzela...!

By now it is old takkie that Google Streetview is active in JHB and elsewhere in South Africa (and the world of course).

Google are always on top of their game, and in the spirit of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, their little guy who you drag around in Streetview is even blowing a red Vuvuzela!

Check it out - bottom right of the picture:

Read More

Google Streetview is alive and well in Johannesburg... even on cellphones!

Almost everyone has heard about Google Streetview by now - and if you haven't, it is Google's way of peeping into backyards all over the world :)

Basically Google sent out a whole lot of Google vehicles with special 360-degree roof-mounted cameras, to take photos of roads and highways in various areas of the world. 

As far as I know they started off in the USA of course, and then moved onto Europe.

More recently, and in time for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, Google invaded South Africa with the result that most of Johannesburg is now available to view using Google Maps.

I tried out the Google Maps mobile app, and the results were spectacular. 

No matter which road I chose in JHB, whether a major highway or a tiny back road, Streetview popped up in all it's glory, revealing Johannesburgers going about their daily lives while Google stealthily went about their way, imaging every piece of road in the city that they could access.

Interestingly, all vehicle number plates are blurred out, as is all vehicle branding, as far I could see anyway.

In the spirit of the World Cup, I took these cellphone screenshots of Google spying on Soccer City...

...and these near OR Tambo International Airport (that's the new Gautrain track overhead).

Did you notice the shadow in the last pic? It clearly shows the upright camera atop the Google vehicle.

Can you imagine the amount of work / logistics / effort that went into this? 

Google just continues to amaze... what's next I wonder?

Read More