Google tells it like it's going to be!

Ed Parsons from Google

Internet giant Google will be digitally mapping tourist hotspots in North Wales with the same advanced technology they used in the iconic Grand Canyon. The news was revealed at the third annual Outdoor North Wales Forum organised by Tourism Partnership North Wales to highlight new developments in the outdoor sector, including a major new marketing campaign. Google will deploy their rapid-shooting cameras to capture the mountains of Snowdonia, large stretches of the Wales Coast Path from Chester down to Barmouth along with other parts of North Wales. The state of the art cameras will not be mounted on the company’s usual airplane or a car - instead they’ll be pointed from the backpacks of a team of operatives working their way through the area on foot.
Details of the next ambitious stage of Google Earth, the virtual globe, map and geographical information program which enables computer users to zoom in on areas from space down to street level, were revealed during at the Forum.

Left to right: Chris Wright (Snowdonia Active), Rory Fegan (Pearlfisher), Peter Hewlett (Walking North Wales), Ed Parsons (Google), Dewi Davies (Tourism Partnership North Wales)

Mr Parsons said his Silicon Valley-based corporation was planning to capture images for Google Earth of the mountains of North Wales. The exercise would use exactly the same technology which the company had devised to intricately map the vast and mostly inaccessible Grand Canyon in Arizona – cameras fitted to the backpacks of operators known as “trekkers” who were able to walk along filming dizzlingly high pathways and tracks which Google’s planes and cars had no chance of reaching. Mr Parsons said: “The specially designed cameras, controlled by a mobile phone app, are carried by the trekkers are in 20 kilogram packs strapped to their backs and they automatically take pictures every two-and-a-half seconds.
“We are really excited about bringing this level of technology to the UK.” Mr Parsons explained Google was looking at places popular with walkers in the region, from the Dee Valley around Llangollen to the Wales Coast Path, which includes miles of stunning countryside including the Dee Estuary, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy and Gwynedd.