When it comes to exploring the world from your screen, two tech giants are competing to capture every street corner on Earth. Google Street View and Apple Look Around represent different approaches to the same ambitious goal: documenting our planet at ground level.
The results, however, tell a fascinating story of priorities, resources, and strategic decisions.
Google’s Global Dominance
Google Street View covers over 10 million miles of roads worldwide, making it the undisputed leader in street-level imagery.
The service has achieved comprehensive coverage across the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and India, with recent expansions into previously untouched territories.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was added to the official Street View driving list in 2024, while countries like Rwanda and Malaysia received significant coverage updates. Even Georgia launched Google Street View as part of Google’s ongoing expansion efforts.
Yet massive gaps remain. China, most of Africa, and large portions of South America, Canada, and Australia still lack comprehensive Street View coverage. This patchwork reflects not just logistical challenges, but also regulatory restrictions and varying government relationships with Google.
Apple’s Selective Approach
Apple Look Around takes a dramatically different approach.
As of May 2025, Look Around covers around 81 areas, focusing on quality over quantity. The coverage includes parts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Japan, and select European countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
What’s particularly striking is Apple’s coverage pattern. Despite the iPhone’s popularity in the United States, Look Around coverage there remains limited compared to Europe, where Android phones often dominate the market. This counterintuitive strategy suggests Apple is prioritizing technical perfection and regulatory compliance over market penetration.
Apple is planning expansion into new countries including Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, China, Turkey, and Mexico, indicating a more aggressive growth phase ahead.
The Technology Behind The Scenes
Google’s approach relies heavily on specialized Street View cars equipped with camera systems that have helped capture those famous 10 million miles. The company also uses backpack-mounted cameras for pedestrian areas and has even deployed underwater cameras for unique locations.
Apple, meanwhile, emphasizes privacy and image quality in its Look Around feature. Apple uses blurred imagery collected during surveys and employs this data to train models for image recognition and enhancement, suggesting a more integrated approach to their mapping ecosystem.
Interesting Geographic Patterns
The coverage maps reveal unexpected patterns. Google Street View shows strong presence in countries with established relationships with American tech companies, while conspicuously avoiding regions with restrictive internet policies or anti-Google sentiment.
Apple’s coverage seems to follow a different logic entirely, prioritizing countries with strong privacy regulations and Apple-friendly governments, regardless of market share. This has led to the curious situation where some European countries have better Apple Look Around coverage than major Apple markets.
The Future Of Street-Level Mapping
Both services continue expanding, but with different philosophies. Google pushes for maximum global coverage, accepting varying image quality and update frequencies. Apple focuses on premium experiences in select markets, ensuring consistent quality and privacy standards.
The competition benefits everyone. As these digital mapping wars intensify, we’re getting unprecedented access to explore our world from home, one street at a time.
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