What's interesting is how Microsoft had "Street view"-esque technology, except they made further innovations to allow not only a straight path, but a 360 walk around view. It was released to the public in 2008, its a shame they didn't attempt to pursue it more in their maps.
http://photosynth.net if anyone's interested. (look for the photosynth ones, not the panoramas. A good example is
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=51b68423-ce72-4373-885f-...)