A few months ago I found myself completely captivated by a Google Street View journey I took through Rome: the Forum, Baths of Diocletian, and the Appian Way.
I had missed the last two on a recent trip to the Eternal City, and found Google’s 3D reality was not a bad substitute to actual wanderings in the real places.
A stealthy startup called 3rd Planet has taken this idea and is turning it into a money making travel planning web site that will, in the words of their brochure, “change the face of tourism forever.”
3rd Planet appears to be a kind of Second Life for vacations planners, allowing them to both step through renderings of cities, ruins, museums, etc. but also interact with “fellow online tourists”.
The monetization part will comes through selling ads and messages in the virtual world to hotels, restaurants, and tourist spots.
The company plans to launch its service in 2011.
Related articles
- 3rd Planet
- New Street View imagery of historic sites in Italy and France (blogspot.com)
- 3D On-Line Interactive Travel Planning (broughturner.com)
