For those who have no Views account

[hvbemmel]

Views users got this email:

Views migration reminder

You may have heard that Views is merging into Google Maps and we are planning a series of improvements to Business View. Here's a summary of what's changing soon. New Street View app In early September, your profile and published panoramas (photo spheres) will be presented alongside those from Google and other contributors in a new, unified Street View gallery designed to bring more visibility to you and your work. On iOS, this app will replace Photo Sphere Camera with both iOS and Android versions supporting our photo sphere camera mode. Most notably though, the apps are capable of linking to spherical cameras. Street View | Trusted In addition to the upcoming app, we've also been preparing a set of changes to our sister platform, Google Maps | Business View. Soon, this business–facing, certified photographer program will begin rebranding as "Street View | Trusted." At that time – and in direct response to your feedback – the program will shed many of its stringent requirements in favor of far more accommodating policies. Enrollment will be much easier, publishing requirements will be simpler, and we're improving publishing and editing reliability. High quality imagery and consistent professionalism will remain key requirements. If you have questions about transitioning to the Trusted program, see the Trusted program details. Google Maps Your public profile will soon take on a new look and feel as some key Views profile features are introduced in Google Maps. These changes will begin rolling out in Google Maps when Views goes offline mid–August. Meanwhile, we're working to enable uploads directly from the Google Maps website, and later in the year, Google Maps will re–introduce support for creating connections between photo spheres ("constellations") with a new, more automated solution. Your existing, approved photos, photo spheres and constellations will continue to be visible – and deletable – through the Google Maps website. Unfortunately at this time, descriptions and comments are not able to be carried over to your Google Maps account. Also, all images, including those that have not been approved for Google Maps, will continue to be accessible via Google+ where you can adjust their visibility permissions. We hope that this unified product landscape will provide even more benefits for the photography community, and we appreciate your patience and understanding.

[Lady GooGoo La La]

Thank you Herman.

OT
I tried logging into Google Earth yesterday and it wouldnt let me, Google in the process of a GE update or some such.

Lady GooGoo LaLa

[© Tom Cooper]

I hope I'm not hijacking the thread, but Google is tangled up in a series of patent infringement lawsuits regarding GE that they will probably loose.  In order to try to minimize the size of any award, they are delibrately trying to make GE as worthless as possible.  That is why you no longer have to pay for the Pro version - No revenue, no value.  If you can't even log in, it's worth even less.

 

You will never hear anything about this grom Google, because the legal implications of getting caught doing it are huge.

 

Back on topic, hearing that Views is shutting down in just a week or two is a surprise.  Google once again ticks off a user community.

 

Tom

[hvbemmel]

Back on topic, hearing that Views is shutting down in just a week or two is a surprise.  Google once again ticks off a user community.

 

Tom

There has been an announcement for Views users in the beginning of July (as a banner on the Views page), the link to the G+ entry has been posted here, but I can't find it at the moment (it says basically the same as the email). Yeah, this will be closely related to the demise of G+, but it's still as clear as mud.

[© Tom Cooper]

Of course it is clear as mud.  The only thing they really know how to do is search.  It is extremely difficult to explain clearly when you don't really know yourself.

No plan, no direction, no understanding.  I'll bet they haven't figured out how all of this is supposed to benefit Google, either.  They were afraid of Facebook; they should be afraid of themselves.

Sorry, I know I am preaching to the choir.

Tom