Google Art Project

[Bikewer]

Anyone checked this out yet? I think it's a great idea; offering virtual tours of the artwork of a wide variety of museums around the world. Oh, most museums have some sort of "tour" available; if only of the current exhibition, but often they are clumsy to use and very limited in scope.
Apparently, Google plans to offer very extensive photo tours of each museum and in a user-friendly format as well.
Looks promising.

Just as an aside... I look at a lot of art sites. Individual artists of all sorts. There is a....Tendency for the folks designing these sites to get all....Artistic.
Now, I suppose that's to be expected. However, in many cases the artsy efforts make the site so difficult to navigate that I give up in frustration.
Couple this with insisting upon high-res photos that show off the art properly (and take forever to load.....) and you don't get a very user-friendly experience.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Cool! While there's nothing like actually being there (just like a sporting event), this is the next best thing.

I'll have to check it out.

 

[TheAnachronism]

I've been obsessed with this new feature since it launched. The virtual tour of the museums allow you to explore the layout, like street view on Google Maps, but because my internet connection is not up to par, it just got infuriating. Luckily, the layout allows you to scroll through the list of artworks in each museum and click on them individually, which I find to be a much more convenient way to browse.

Also, each artwork has an information bar to the right which often includes "viewing notes" (comments about the piece/artist), tags (helps find more pieces in the same style), and much more.

I love Google a bit more each day.