News - Google Art Project brings masterpieces to the web

[HEXUS]

Over a thousand works of art from around the world now accessible at up to 7 gigapixel resolution.

Read more.

[format]

Awesome idea.

[MSIC]

I logically recognise that Google is a company, a business, who is primarily motivated by revenue;
And yet, when I read stuff like this (similar to how I felt when I first heard about Google Earth) i am transfixed by feelings of amazement (both of a technical level and of human determination and skill), and also feeling humbled that this information is available for free.
Google seems to be really bringing the power back to the people (and also earning a pretty penny too, i'm sure).

[GheeTsar]

I really like this despite not being an art buff.

[Molotov]

It's stuff like this that should be shutting up critics of internet as an education device
Well done to google is simply all there is to say !

[Funkstar]

Two things that jump out at me:

been captured using gigapixel cameras

You sure? Not just mega pixel cameras taking hundreds of photos and the images all stitched together?

On top of this, the museums have all been mapped by Google's Street View Indoors tech, meaning that you can take a virtual tour of more than 385 rooms

Now this is the most interesting part. Sure having a few ultra high resolution images of paintings online and viewable in a easy to use way is great, but nothing ground breaking. It's just Google Maps with different image data isn't it? Being able to explore through museums with Street View on the other hand is just brilliant!