Google Streetview Images API

Question

Is there an API available for grabbing Google Streetview images at a particular location (and direction)? I see that its possible to get and position the Flash control, but I'd prefer something that just gave me a JPEG (or some other bitmap format).

Answer 1

Here is the documentation.

Here is the reference documentation.

Check out the Google samples.

I believe that this example is what you are looking for.

Also, you will need to register for the Google Maps API key.

Answer 2

You're looking for the Static Maps API. Unfortunately, they haven't finished the work on having a static Street View map. As comments 4 and 5 indicate, you may be able to get the thumbnail images used for Street View (though you may have to actually have Google load that particular image before being able to grab it and potentially cache it yourself). Other than that, you're stuck with the Flash control.

You may be able to have a service on the backend that essentially takes a screen cap of the Flash control and caches it, but that's a bit hackish.

Answer 3

The static images aren't officially available, but you can grab the tiles and thumbnails using the same API that Google's Streetview flash application uses.

I wrote about the technique here:

http://jamiethompson.co.uk/web/2010/05/15/google-streetview-static-api/