By Christianna Lewis

The new Street View Trike is bringing previously inaccessible sites to Google Earth. ACU is battling for nomination in the nationwide contest that will determine which sites – and universities – will be next on the map.

Photo courtesy of blog.dk.sg

The Google Trike contest was announced on the official Google blog Oct. 16 and lasted until Oct. 28. Any user could suggest a location for the Google Trike’s next visit. The nominations fell into six categories, including landmarks, theme parks and university campuses. Google will review the requests and open the vote on the final nominees Nov. 11th.

Following Google’s announcement, ACU began calling for alumni, faculty and students to vote to “put ACU on the map.” Links to the nomination site were posted on the ACU Web site, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. The response was encouraging, said James Langford, director of web integration and programming.

“We’re just trying to get to the second round,” Langford said.

Google was not specific on how the locations will be evaluated, but Langford said the number of requests likely will influence the choice of nominees. Langford said he believed the response was enough to increase ACU’s chance of reaching the final round.

“One thing that might help is that we’re on the Customer Advisory Board for Google Apps; but we’re also in the middle of West Texas,” Langford said. “They might choose larger campuses next.”

The competition not only offers ACU good press, Langford said, but gives people worldwide an opportunity to visit the campus from the comfort of their own homes. Though ACU already has a 3-D map of its campus available on the Internet, the Google Trike would capture 360-degree photographic views all over campus, allowing the viewer a much richer experience of the university. This would be a great tool for potential students, as well as alumni who haven’t been able to see the campus’s changes over the years, Langford said.

The Google Trike is a tricycle mounted with nine cameras designed to capture panoramic images of locations out of reach of the Street View Cars. It has already captured several famous locations, including LEGOLAND California, Santiago State University and several historic sites in Europe. However, this competition offers the public its first opportunity to decide which new locations can be visited on Google Earth.

If ACU is chosen as the Google Trike’s next destination, the visit – and launch party – will be planned and coordinated by the five ACU Google ambassadors.

The ambassador project is one of several indications of ACU’s uncommon relationship with Google, said Lead Ambassador Joshua Archer, sophomore information systems major from Southlake. ACU’s partnership with Google may give ACU a competitive edge in the nomination stage of the contest, he said.

“I think we have a really good shot at it,” Archer said. “A lot of schools don’t have what we have.”

Students will be able to vote on the finalists at www.google.com/trike Nov. 11. To find more information about the Google Trike and the competition, Archer said students can “Google it.”