Why Hitta’s Street Image is better than Google’s Street View

Street Image from Hitta (Sweden) and Street View Google, are online services that gives you the ability (through a web browser) to see the streets of a city, as if you were there in a car or walking . Sometimes it feels like you are in the back side of a war vehicle, in first person shooter game. In the image bellow you can see the print screen of what you see when using the services.

[Near Sergels torg,Stockholm]

[Rome, in front of the Coliseum]

Google was first to offer the service in many cities of the world, but is yet to come to Sweden. Being available in cities Paris, Rome, Tokyo and Sydney, it seems that is targeted tourist (You can see the Street View main page if it’s available in a city near you. ). In the case of Hitta, it is only available in the main parts of Stockholm.

UX

User eXperience, is the reason that Hitta’s Street Image is better than Google’s Street View. Google is to restrictive and doesn’t give you the freedom that Hitta provides. Sure Google was first, but Hitta went a step further and enhance the experience for the user. Also, by provide better quality pictures than Google does, we can enjoy the city in a different way.

The UX is seen the first time you use the service. Hitta’s solution permits you walk at your own pace, providing you with blue circles which gives you a accurate sense of where you can go next in your journey through the streets of the city (see image bellow). So, if you want walk fast through the street of Stockholm you go the father circle in front of you, if you just want to take small step, then click on the first circle (and so forth). This way you get a sense of control, and feeling that the movement is continuous and not frame by frame.

[Hitta's Navigation Circles]

[Google's Navigation Arrow]

In contrast, Google just give you one arrow to advance and moves. It doesn’t permit or informs in advance where the next “view” will be. So, when you click on the arrow and advance, you may get a felling that you are missing on something and we are traveling in a worm whole.

Hitta doesn’t provide you with a full screen mode like Google, instead you can resize the views as you find it fit. Again here Hitta gives you freedom and let you personalize your experience, since some cases it might be better to have a big map, in other a bigger image or view. Overal the it’s just more enjoyable and as it was said to me in Blipea “. I could explore the city for hours”.

The killer feature that both are missing is permalinks to each spot. Yeah it could be a challenge, however Hitta could provide a permalink to each blue circle, so if you wish to share it with a friend it will be easy. Don’t know about Google, you can link to some photos by typing the exact address, but still is not that easy to remember.

Blurring

Google Street View  blurs people faces and car license plates, that is because of all the privacy concerns. Imagine the Street View Car catches people in places and doing stuff that can get them in trouble. So, to hush the critics Google has an algorithm that blurs faces and license plates. As you can see below

[Faces being blurred]

[License plates being blurred]

Hitta’s Steet Image doesn’t blur anything, it gives you high qualities pictures. I guess in Sweden this is not a problem or maybe Swedes had a chance to complain.. As the image below shows, the Hitta car go some nice poses (click to see a bigger image).

[Stureplan in the back you can see the Spy Bar]

Final Thoughts

This shows you that when you dedicate yourself to do just one thing, most of the time the result will be very good. Opposite to what Google is doing: trying to be everywhere, launching mediocre or BETA products just to say they where the first and scare any smaller companies. Then again being the first is not always a good thing, it means other can learn from your mistakes. Especially when a company like Hitta is faster than than a big company like Google.

Hitta is a example of how sometimes the local solutions or “clones” are a better choice, mainly because they have to watch out for the big companies, know the market and the local culture.

Next: is to make this service really useful and not just “cool”. Maybe virtual tourism is a use, also for providing direction or integrating with GPS devices and phones for tourists, at the end is about if it drives revenue in a direct or indirect way.