[x] new feature in Globebop

[Jim Andrews]

I added a feature to Globebop I thought you might enjoy. Globebop, if 
you haven't seen it, is a web app I wrote (works in all modern desktop 
and mobile browsers) that shows you panoramas all over the world and 
lets you read about the places via Wikipedia articles. Clicking the 
globe takes you to a random place on Earth. Many of the interactive 
panoramas are photographed by Google photographers but most of them (60% 
or so) are photographed by individuals photographing places of 
importance to them. In 2012 Google had amassed 20 petabytes of these 
Street View panoramas. That was before they opened it up to 
contributions from the public. Globebop access millions, possibly 
billions of panoramas. You are rarely presented with the same place twice.

The new feature is this: if you surf to http://globebop.com/web , you'll 
see a star button at the bottom right. If you click it (or press the 'w' 
key), that'll take you to a different World Heritage Site each time you 
click/press it. That's the new feature. There are 1052 different World 
Heritage Sites. These sites comprise many of the interesting ruins 
across the globe, together with sites of other scientific, cultural, or 
educational value.

Once you've arrived at a site, press the magnifying glass (or 's' key 
for 'search) and you'll see text about where you are. Press the 
magnifying glass or 's' key again to return to the panorama.

You can explore sites three different ways.

1. Click 'm' or the Map View button to view a map of where you are. Drag 
the map's center point to where you want to go. You'll see the 
cross-hair symbol at the center of the map. Click the 'm' key or Map 
View button again to be taken to the nearest panorama to the center of 
the map.

2. On the panorama itself, you may see white arrows that lead to nearby 
panoramas. Click those to navigate, or click the panorama and then use 
the keyboard's arrow keys to navigate.

3. If you click the magnifying glass (Search button) you can not only 
access Wikipedia articles about where you are, but also you can use the 
Search boxes to search for places.

Of course, as before, you can click the globe button to be taken to a 
random place on the planet. So now you you can either visit random 
locations on the planet or very non-random, historically significant 
locations.

You can read something I wrote about Globebop, plus view a tutorial 
video, at http://globebop.com

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jim Andrews