Raffia: The camel who helped Google create the street view of Liwa desert  

Technology alone can fail sometimes and need human intervention to complete a task. But what happened in 2014 was unique when technology had to resort to an animal for its success. Yes, in 2014 Google hired a camel to create the street view of a desert. Normally, Google would use a car or people for the job but since a desert is difficult terrain, it shifted to a low-tech solution and a camel named Raffia came to its rescue!  

How does Google create street views?  
Google uses a Trekker camera tied to a car for creating street views for most of the places. In some cases, the camera has also been attached to people (such as to document the Grand Canyon and Venice) and tricycles.  

However, in the world's remote locations, such as a desert in Abu Dhabi, vehicles or people can’t make it for long and would not provide the best views of the region.  

Raffia comes to Google’s rescue  
In 2014, Google had to create the street view of the Liwa Desert in Abu Dhabi, one of the oldest sites in the UAE.  

Since the desert was a difficult terrain to capture with a car or a human being, Google thought of a camel this time. But why a camel? Camels have been used in deserts since ancient times. In a desert, a camel is used to transport or travel long distances because of its appetite, its ability to go without water for several days, and its loading capacity.  

So, Google turned to a 10-year-old camel named Raffia. And this choice of the tech giant was just perfect! Raffia became the first animal to carry Google's Trekker camera. It also completed the task beautifully well.  Raffia walked through the desert, capturing images of the dunes, oasis, her own shadow and footsteps in the sand, and other camels. These pictures taken from the Trekker camera are patched together to create a 360-degree view of the location. 

What does Google Street View do? 
Google Street View is the technology feature of Google Maps and Google Earth since 2007. It helps you view and navigate through 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical panoramic street-level images of various streets and cities around the world.  

While Google Maps gives you the ability to plot a route and view the satellite view of the same, with Street View, you can see exactly what a destination looks like, and even explore local businesses before going there.