TUUR's two most popular services are Google Street View and Virtual tour. Neither of these two is better than the other, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. However, based on these strengths and weaknesses, one is better suited for one company and the other is better suited for another. In this article, I will highlight the differences between Virtual Tours and Google Street View - so that you can easily understand which one is better suited to showcase your business.
Google Street View
Most of us have seen and used Google Street View. The concept of Street View is very simple: 360-degree photos are taken along a certain trajectory at intervals of 2-10 meters. These photos are then connected in a computer program so that the user can open them one after the other and, as it were, move along the photographed trajectory.
The most important advantages of Google Street View compared to a virtual tour
- In addition to being able to place Google Street View on a company's website, it is also displayed in Google's own services (primarily Google Maps and Google Search). Google does not charge money for displaying it (yet).
- Putting up a Google Street View is easy for the client – the Street View is uploaded to Google's server by the photographer and linked to the corresponding Google Maps place. The client can then display this Street View on their website using a simple iFrame code or link.
- With Google Street View, you can walk around a room or between rooms along a trajectory.
The main disadvantages of Google Street View compared to a virtual tour
- Google Street View, which is hosted on Google's servers, does not allow you to add additional information, points of interest, special menus, or anything like that to images. The Street View user interface is exactly as it comes standard - it only allows you to look around and move between panoramas.
- The lack of a menu is a disadvantage, especially for large areas, because to get from one end of the house to the other, the user has to travel the entire path between the rooms.
- To show a large building (such as a university campus or a conference center), you have to photograph the entire trajectory from one room to another. If there is a boring corridor between the rooms, you have to photograph that too. Igfa photography pays and in the end, the client also pays for boring corridor photos, the necessity of which is often questionable. The photographer again has to photograph pointless corridors instead of focusing on taking the most effective 360 photos of beautiful or interesting places.
- Google Street View image quality is lower than that of the standalone virtual tour. The sphere is not complete – the location of the tripod when looking straight down is marked with a blurred circle
- Google Street View is not branded with the company's own symbols/colors/fonts, etc. What's more, it is branded with the branding of the photographer or agency that created the Street View. This may not be suitable for larger companies.
Choose Google Street View if:
- You need to show a smaller place – for example, a cafe or restaurant
- You definitely want the viewer to be able to “walk around” in the room or between rooms.
- You just want to show people the rooms – expressing a marketing message or surprising business partners/clients with an awesome virtual experience is not important
- People don't have to be in the pictures (show rooms or outdoor areas without people)
Google Street View examples:
- South Center
- Ahhaa centrality
- BabyBack Nautica Restaurant
Specially designed virtual tour
A specially designed virtual tour also consists of 360-degree photos. However, they are not assembled into a navigable whole using Google Street View software, but are created similarly to creating a regular website – using special software, CSS, HTML and Javascript programming languages, etc. This “manual creation” gives complete creative freedom when creating a virtual tour. We can design the virtual tour buttons, menus, button operation, etc. exactly as the customer wants. We can make the tour multilingual, add videos, house plans, downloadable documents, replace 360-degree photos with videos, use company symbols, colors, fonts, etc. in the design.
In general, if Street View is like a company's Facebook page, then a specially designed virtual tour is like a website created by a design agency. World-class, representative material for introducing a company - whether in Estonia or abroad.
The most important advantages of a virtual tour compared to Google Street View
- A custom-designed virtual tour user interface (menu, buttons, photos, and location sharing information) can be created in any way – according to the needs of a specific location. For example:
- The virtual tour of Patarei Prison uses marked areas to convey information, which when hovered over with the root display information:
- The Kultuurikatla virtual tour includes the necessary rental information for each rental hall.
- The Tallinn University virtual tour features a strong emphasis on the company's symbolism, font, colors, and other visual elements, designed to harmonize the tour's design with the brand's website and other design materials.
- The specially designed virtual tour image quality is world-class, the maximum possible
- The specially designed virtual tour panoramic photos are thoughtfully taken from the best locations, focusing on visualizing the most important things in the space.
The main disadvantages of a virtual tour compared to Google Street View
- You can't walk around the room (you can also take a virtual tour with a walking effect, but moving from image to image isn't quite as effective as Street View created using Google algorithms)
- The virtual tour will not be shown on Google services.
- A virtual tour is a set of files that the subscriber must upload to their web server (in many cases, this is actually a plus).
- Creating a virtual tour takes longer and the process is somewhat more complicated, because we have to come to an agreement with the client on what elements should be in the virtual tour and how the tour should look. In addition, texts need to be created (information points and descriptions of panoramas, etc.). Street View is a standard solution and the process is very simple for it.
Choose a specially designed virtual tour if:
- You want to create a wow experience in your viewers with a virtual tour
- You want the virtual tour to reflect the visuals and essence of your brand as best as possible.
- If maximum image quality and perfectly composed panoramic photos in all directions are important to you
- You have a larger space: for example, you need to show rooms or different buildings that are scattered around
- You want to include people doing something in the photos
- You want the virtual tour to be under your control on your server
- You want to show the virtual tour without the internet if necessary – from your own computer (for example, at a trade fair, etc.)
- You would like the tour to include aerial drone photos or 360-degree videos
Examples of specially designed virtual tours:
NokNok restaurant
Tallinn University
Silja Symphony cruise ship
Tartu Nature House
Tallinn Patarei Prison
