Google’s World Wonders Project brings the magic of Street View to historic sites

Who needs to go on vacation when you’ve  got Google?

Google today is rolling out the World Wonders project, an interactive site that explores 132 historic sites from all across the world.

Google charted the sites in much the same way as it has with its Street View technology – with one major exception: Trikes, special camera-equipped vehicles that replaced Street View cars when navigation was an issue. Likewise, when necessary, the company strapped its cameras to snowmobiles, boats, and, in one instance, the top of of a train.

The ability to traverse obstacles gave the project team access to spaces like the interior of Stonehenge, which can be explored fully and throughly from the browser.

The result is a experience that gives a clear and exciting view into the future of travel, where “being there” is less physical and more experiential. And cheaper, too.

While the Google Wonders project may not ever come close to actual experience of travel, it does give its users access to parts of the world that most people may never get a chance to see. And that’s a feat that seems as if only Google can pull off. (The project also harkens back to Eric Schmidt’s Mobile World Congress keynote this year, where he predicted that we’d eventually be able to experience events via 3D holographics.)

Below is a behind-the-scenes look at one of the Google Trikes, which are, unsurprisingly, pretty amusing to see in action.