Honestly, I'm surprised to see Seznam on HN. I grew up on Czech internet in 90s and Seznam.cz (or "Directory" in English) has been huge for long time until Google has eventually beaten them. The vibe I get here from comments is like as if Seznam.cz is some new hot company while it is really a dying dinosaur like Yahoo.
Maps are not core competency of this company. They are early Internet pioneers maintaining huge portfolio of various services for almost two decades. Maps is just another service they are working on to keep users from leaving them for Google/Youtube, Facebook etc.
Btw, I spoke to Seznam.cz founder briefly once at some business event in Slovakia back in 2000 when I was 17
I do disagree, that Seznam.cz would be a dying company (and not only because i am its spokes person). Maps are a very important part of our product scale. we do a lot to have the best maps in the region - most accurate, most up-to-date and best for users. we are working on our own Panorama, 3D maps like these 8 already revealed for the whole Czech Republic. and we have an awsome app for maps with on-line data for the whole Czech Republic. Is constant innovation a sign of a dying firm?
Comparing Seznam to a dying dinousaur is extremely misguided. In terms of innovation and poduct quality, they're doing very well. They're slowly losing their search market share because it's hard to compete with Google but that doesn't mean they're dying. Also, it's the most attractive Czech IT company for employees.
The Norwegian site Finn.no got 3D maps that looked exactly like this back in 2008. [0]
As the link explains, the technology originates from the Swedish air force, and was meant to guide missiles through urban landscapes. It was since commercialized for civilian uses by the company C3 Technologies.
C3 Technologies has been acquired by Apple, and they are using the technology in their maps apps (iOS and OS X). I think it's unlikely that Apple would license this technology to Seznam.
Based on the posts, people think that seznam.cz is a startup and Google will buy it like in 3,2,1. This is complete nonsense. Seznam is far from a startup and I am pretty sure their goal is not to get "only" acquired. Its mapping service is superior to google as far as Czech republic is considered. Well done guys!
Seznam has been around since the 90s! It used to be the default search engine in Czech Republic that whole time, providing not only search but the first email accounts, news, gossip, etc.
Raises an interesting question about whether (and where) Google might be vulnerable to local rivals.
China is the most obvious example where Google simply haven't been allowed to gather mapping data to compete, but it's interesting that there are other places where they can theoretically compete but there are significant local players.
Is this different than, Nokia's 3d Maps?
This is Stockholm:
http://here.com/59.3314885,18.0667682,18.9,344,59,3d.day
edit: I see this covers different regions in Czech Republic, whereas Nokia covers some well known cities all over the world.
I think that given that Google already has 3D depth coverage from its street view machines [1], it should be possible to combine that data with some medium resolution overhead 3D scans to create something similar, and likely even higher quality at the street level.
I wonder why Google hasn't done it yet. I don't think there are any real technical limitations. It may be that getting it fast is hard and the usefulness from an end user perspective isn't there yet?
Hi, I'm from Seznam.cz and I'm in charge of Mapy.cz. Let me explain a couple of things and correct some misinformation:
1) As was already said above, Seznam.cz is not a startup, it's been here longer than Google, and it's one of the biggest Czech companies (over 1000 employees). In terms of monthly user counts, it is still number one on Czech internet, in front of Google.
2) the imagery is not taken by drones, nor helicopters, but airplanes. Nobody is able to take imagery of large areas (hundreds of kilometres) by drones, it is only possible by airplanes, in today's state of technologies. We have our own imagery, not bought from anyone.
3) the 3D model is computed from the aerial imagery (ortofoto + oblique). No manual work is performed. It is a highly demanding computation, consuming months even on huge cloud of top-notch supercomputers - which is why it is not easy even for Google, to do it on large areas around the whole globe. The computation will run for almost one year, to create 3D model of thousands of square kms, which we plan to publish this year.
4) our maps earn money by selling our primary data, which we produce (ortofoto, oblique, Panorama, etc.), for commercial professional users (not only in Czech rep., but also abroad). The company as a whole earns money from selling media space on its 20-30 web sites (seznam.cz, firmy.cz, sreality.cz, novinky.cz, etc.). The company is highly innovative in terms of technologies (as I describe above), as well as in user interface (our GUI never copies other designs, we constantly create and test newer and newer GUIs).
I find this very impressive. The fact that you can rotate arbitrarily and see correct textures applied to all surfaces of buildings/foliage is amazing.
Can anyone provide any insight into how this is done? Is there a dataset which specifies the detailed 3D layout of the earth? If so, how is it generated? Is there satellite imagery of all possible angles? Is this all automated, or is there a lot of manual work in doing all of this?
I actually think that this is slightly less detailed than the Bing Maps Preview, where I could see my friend's car parked in front of his research institute - I'm impressed that it's running in a browser though.
Far better than google, bing and apple maps. Nice work, seznam.
Why seznam does non exist in others European languages?
Czech republic is a little market, and if they focus just on Czech republic their economy of scale will be broke very soon. They need investment to update technology, but if their market is so little it became prohibitively expensive very quickly.
Why does the error message remind me of "This site is only accessible in IE5. Get it [here]"?
In other words, we seem to be rapidly drifting back into the Bad Old Days, when sites were made for a single browser? Not using Firefox? You're SOL. Not using Chrome? You're SOL elsewhere.
The model is calculated from aerial photographs. The software for this was made by Melown Maps, a Czech computer vision company. See their website http://www.melown.com/maps for more models.
Just a few questions - what algorithm do you use for geometry simplification? Is it based on quadric error metrics edge collapses? How do you join tiles of different LODs? Any papers on reconstructing 3D from your drones?
[+] [-] lubos|12 years ago|reply
Maps are not core competency of this company. They are early Internet pioneers maintaining huge portfolio of various services for almost two decades. Maps is just another service they are working on to keep users from leaving them for Google/Youtube, Facebook etc.
Btw, I spoke to Seznam.cz founder briefly once at some business event in Slovakia back in 2000 when I was 17
edit: their maps are created by Melown.com, see example https://www.melown.com/maps/
[+] [-] izatlouk|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RivieraKid|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hengheng|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lars|12 years ago|reply
As the link explains, the technology originates from the Swedish air force, and was meant to guide missiles through urban landscapes. It was since commercialized for civilian uses by the company C3 Technologies.
This looks like it's exactly the same technology.
[0]: http://labs.finn.no/sesam-3d-map-3d-revolution-the-people/
[+] [-] jannes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zk00006|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antjanus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tyrannosaurs|12 years ago|reply
China is the most obvious example where Google simply haven't been allowed to gather mapping data to compete, but it's interesting that there are other places where they can theoretically compete but there are significant local players.
[+] [-] suoloordi|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhouston|12 years ago|reply
I wonder why Google hasn't done it yet. I don't think there are any real technical limitations. It may be that getting it fast is hard and the usefulness from an end user perspective isn't there yet?
[1] http://gizmodo.com/depth-maps-hidden-in-google-street-view-c...
[+] [-] podman|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] helloiamvu|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris-at|12 years ago|reply
http://beta.mapy.cz/3d?x=16.5301666&y=49.1886081&z=13&source...
[+] [-] Aoyagi|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adam1234|12 years ago|reply
1) As was already said above, Seznam.cz is not a startup, it's been here longer than Google, and it's one of the biggest Czech companies (over 1000 employees). In terms of monthly user counts, it is still number one on Czech internet, in front of Google.
2) the imagery is not taken by drones, nor helicopters, but airplanes. Nobody is able to take imagery of large areas (hundreds of kilometres) by drones, it is only possible by airplanes, in today's state of technologies. We have our own imagery, not bought from anyone.
3) the 3D model is computed from the aerial imagery (ortofoto + oblique). No manual work is performed. It is a highly demanding computation, consuming months even on huge cloud of top-notch supercomputers - which is why it is not easy even for Google, to do it on large areas around the whole globe. The computation will run for almost one year, to create 3D model of thousands of square kms, which we plan to publish this year.
4) our maps earn money by selling our primary data, which we produce (ortofoto, oblique, Panorama, etc.), for commercial professional users (not only in Czech rep., but also abroad). The company as a whole earns money from selling media space on its 20-30 web sites (seznam.cz, firmy.cz, sreality.cz, novinky.cz, etc.). The company is highly innovative in terms of technologies (as I describe above), as well as in user interface (our GUI never copies other designs, we constantly create and test newer and newer GUIs).
Howgh :)
[+] [-] fractalsea|12 years ago|reply
Can anyone provide any insight into how this is done? Is there a dataset which specifies the detailed 3D layout of the earth? If so, how is it generated? Is there satellite imagery of all possible angles? Is this all automated, or is there a lot of manual work in doing all of this?
[+] [-] robmcm|12 years ago|reply
I don't want the back button to navigate the map!
[+] [-] RankingMember|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metronius|12 years ago|reply
https://www.google.cz/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=Pter...
[+] [-] bhouston|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antjanus|12 years ago|reply
They experiment a TON, all the time.
[+] [-] felixrieseberg|12 years ago|reply
http://www.bing.com/dev/en-us/maps-preview-app
[+] [-] kome|12 years ago|reply
Why seznam does non exist in others European languages?
Czech republic is a little market, and if they focus just on Czech republic their economy of scale will be broke very soon. They need investment to update technology, but if their market is so little it became prohibitively expensive very quickly.
[+] [-] Piskvorrr|12 years ago|reply
In other words, we seem to be rapidly drifting back into the Bad Old Days, when sites were made for a single browser? Not using Firefox? You're SOL. Not using Chrome? You're SOL elsewhere.
[+] [-] emehrkay|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vb1977|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitL|12 years ago|reply
Just a few questions - what algorithm do you use for geometry simplification? Is it based on quadric error metrics edge collapses? How do you join tiles of different LODs? Any papers on reconstructing 3D from your drones?
[+] [-] dharma1|12 years ago|reply
Nice to see it can be done with a single UAV and camera. Is there any open source software doing this?
[+] [-] _mikz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zk00006|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SchizoDuckie|12 years ago|reply
have they actually scanned this? or are they generating this from google maps imagery?
[+] [-] rplnt|12 years ago|reply