Dharm Makwana

G oogle Street View hit the slopes just in time for the opening of the Winter Games.

The web search giant unveiled a revamped suite of web applications on Tuesday specifically designed for the Olympics, which features a Street View function for Whistler-Blackcomb captured by a panoramic camera mounted on top of a snowmobile.

“When you go inside of Street View and you look at all the pictures in there, whether it’s from the roads or the pedestrian pathways or the slopes, it’s going to be the same high-quality imagery that you’re going to find in those Street View pictures,” said Google senior mechanical engineer Daniel Ratner.

Designers also beefed up Google Earth with a complete virtual representation of Olympic competition venues and most of downtown Vancouver.

The Google Earth images include the view from the top of a ski jump and allows for users to virtually navigate the Olympic bobsled course.

Engineers built an iGoogle gadget, which takes users to a map of where events are happening with listings, event information and an overall medal count.

Google Maps now features top picks for restaurants and other tourist destinations from Premier Gordon Campbell and Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, among other notable figures.

Transit information on Google Maps will reflect particular event times, schedules and routes including the buses going between Vancouver for Whistler.

A transit map specific to Whistler will be launched later this week.

Those sticking to the traditional Google Search engine will find a direct link to VANOC’s website when searching Olympic events and real-time comments on the Games generated from Twitter and Facebook embedded in the search results.

A fresh Google Doodle will appear on the search page for the duration of the Olympics.

Google's suite of Olympic web applications can be found at www.google.com/games10.