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Street View Snowmobile Gives Vantage From Olympic Mountain (Sadly Not Mount Olympus)

by Caleb Johnson on February 9, 2010 at 05:05 PM

Admittedly, we're not exactly thrilled about the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. We don't even understand the rules of half the events. But leave it to Google to make the games (or at least the location) a little more exciting.

To do this, some enterprising engineers and camera operators are taking Google Street View to new heights -- literally. According to the Official Google Blog, you can now view shots from vantage points in the Whistler Blackcomb mountains -- some of them as high as 7,000 feet. The Street View team rigged a camera to a snowmobile and zipped around many of the runs that will host Olympic events -- like the Dave Murray downhill slope. These really are some breathtaking shots, and shots that many of us would never see if it weren't for Street View. Plus, Google captured some new aerial images of the Vancouver-Whistler area.

Along with providing some awesome views, Google is basically your go-to source for Winter Olympic updates, too. The site's Favorite Places feature will connect users to some of the best places to see and visit while attending the games, and there's also a Web gallery where you can upload and view pictures from the events. That's not to mention that, with a few keystrokes, you can instantly check medal counts, and read millions of articles about the Games. And, of course, in honor of the quadrennial event, the homepage will feature a new logo design each day from February 12th to February 28th.

We bet the television ratings for the Winter Olympics will still be dismal, but, with these cool features, Google at least should get plenty of page views. We know we'll be clicking to check them out. [From: Google]

Tags: google, snowmobile, streetview, winter olympics

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