When Google started its Cultural Institute five years ago, it brought a few hundred artworks online from 17 museums.
Celebrating its fifth birthday Thursday, the Google Cultural Institute has grown to include collections of upwards of 1,000 museums and art institutions.
And that's not including the 60 new ones added Thursday. To celebrate its fifth-year anniversary, the Google Cultural Institute has enabled virtual visits through the famed rotunda of the Guggenheim museum in New York City, courtesy of the company's aerial Street View imagery.
But that's just the beginning. The added destinations for virtual visits also now include the grand halls of the Palace of Parliament, the world's heaviest building, in Romania.
Google Cultural Institute users can also view Monet's water lilies in super-high "gigapixel" resolution, allowing them to zoom in on the slightest details, inlcuding his layered brushstrokes. Following that, one could even visit Monsieur, Monet's real-life garden via the Google experience, as well.
While "gigapixel" images and Street View inside museums are the primary ways that the Google Cultural Institute grants online access to museums, galleries and theaters, despite users' geographic locations, virtual reality will only extend that experience, taking it a big step further with total immersion.
Just earlier this week, Google Expeditions announced virtual visits to the Great Barrier Reef and Buckingham Palace, allowing students to take virtual field trips right from their classrooms.
Along those same lines, the Google Cultural Institute recently took young patients from the King's College Hospital in London on a virtual field trip to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, England's oldest public art gallery.
And the possibilities to explore continue.
