Google Acquires Digisfera To Boost Street View Capabilities

Google today has announced that it has acquired Digisfera, a Portugal-based startup whose specialty is making the most out of panoramic photos. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Once completed, Digisfera team will joining the Street View team at Google’s HQ in California to continue building great experiences using 360 degree photography. 

Founded in 2011 by Antonio Cabral and his son Manuel Cabral, Digisfera described itself as a company that provides photography, design and development services for projects involving 360 degrees images. The company developed two sets of tools. Panotag, which lets developers add tagging functionality to their apps and Marizano, which processes panoramas and exports them as a 360 degrees image viewable in any web browser. 

Digisfera has already taken many panoramic projects in the past five years. These include the inauguration of US president Barack Obama, the Maracanã Stadium during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2014 Winter Olympic in Sochi, Russia.

Digisfera is shutting down on October 31, Google plans to discontinue its Panotag services. Google also plans to open source Marizano to preserve its underlying technology. 

Image by: VentureBeat

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