Google today announced the launch of a new community site called Views. The new service serves one main purpose: it’s a place to publicly share your photo spheres to Google Maps.
If you need a refresher, Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and above comes with a photo sphere camera that lets you snap photos in any direction and piece them together into 360º panoramas that Google calls “photo spheres.” You can then view these on your phone, share them to Google+, add them to Google Maps, and even post them on your own website.
Below is a screenshot of the new Google Maps for desktop with a photo sphere (notice the thumbnails that show all the photo coverage, with each image placed on the map):
