Photo credit: visitsingapore.com

The Fine City is set to look fine online thanks to the world’s most popular search engine. Singapore, the island state in Southeast Asia known for its high standard of living and well-organized society, has teamed up with Google to find local tourist spots that can be featured on the Internet.

Last month, the Singapore Tourism Board and Google asked Singaporeans to nominate places that could be viewed by the latter’s Street View trike. The trike or tricycle is the Lion City’s counterpart of the vehicles used by Google Street View, a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth. 

These trikes are usually around 2.5 meters high and are equipped with directional cameras that provide 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical panoramic street scene views.

These street view images appear “after zooming in beyond the highest zooming level in maps and satellite images,” as described by Wikipedia. However, they are only available when one views countries like the United States, Canada, Japan, Czech Repuublic, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico and lately Singapore.

The unique search results rank visually well, indeed. Out of nearly a thousand suggestions ranging from popular hotspots to unknown locales, some of the interesting areas include themed (original, quirky and otherwise) attractions like Somerset Skate Park (skateboard view), Sungei Buloh Mangrove Reserve (wildlife view), Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (enlightened view), and Henderson Waves (highest view).

“We’ve been thrilled with the suggestions made by the Singaporean public and are excited to see where our Street View trike will go after all the votes are in,” shares Derek Callow, Google Southeast Asia marketing head.

“I’m not sure how we’ll get the trike to some of these locations, it does weigh 150kg,” Callow humorously adds. “But we’ll try our best!”

The Singapore search was designed to help Google develop imagery for less-accesible places. So far, STB and Google have zeroed in on 24 finalist locations within four categories, namely, The City & Quays, Cultural Areas, Natural Wonders, and Hidden Gems.

Singaporeans can cast their online votes up to November 19, at www.google.com.sg/svtrike to decide which place in each category is worthy of a trike visit.

“We are pleased to see Singaporeans excited about showcasing their city through Street View trike,” says Chang Chee Pey, STB’s director for brand management, “[and] we hope the final sites chosen for the Street View trike to visit will give potential visitors a first taste of what awaits them in Singapore, both on and off the beaten track.” (Miles T)

Source: Singapore Tourism Board and Wikipedia