"just because you're panoid doesn't mean they're not mapping you"

Why wouldn't Google release an API for their new Google Street View? We don't know, but boy, it's fun to disect their undisclosed API, and it's even more fun writing hacks for it!

[update] Actually Google has published code for KML2.2 PHotoOverlay that might be very useful:

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/photos.html

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tags_beta1.html#photooverlay

Current Hacks

Mikel Maron's Upcomming Flickr Street View hack (all done from Y! Sunnyvale at WhereCamp)

Pulled down at the request of Google Tom Longson's Google Street View Scraper (used to walk Google Street view metadata, sample data scraped while at Y! Sunnyvale)

Greg Sadetsky's GHATS (okay, not really a hack, but still funny)

Nathan de Vries' Google Street View Timelapse Videos (driving over the Golden Gate Bridge and down Las Vegas Boulevard)

Jordan Bayliss-McCulloch's Advanced Google Street View Viewer (Movie - Preview Only) - an advanced viewer for the the Google Street View panoramas (C++/OpenGL)

....your hack here!

API Information

API can be found at http://maps.google.com/cbk and http://cbk0.google.com/cbk (not sure what the difference is)

Parameters include:

output
- output type, known valid inputs: [xml,tile,overlay]
- kml, rss, txt do not work with the output parameter.
ll (probably means latitude longitude)
- lat long, known valid inputs <lat>,<lon>
- if lat long is close to a valid panoid, the closest panoid will be returned
- if the lat long is far away from a valid panoid, an xml document will be returned with the following:
  - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><panorama></panorama>
panoid (panorama id - probably a timecode)
zoom [1,2,3]
- zoom level for photo
x
- horizontal offset for tiles
y
- vertical offset for tiles