CampusTours Inc. develops and provides a directory of virtual college tours, interactive campus maps, campus webcams, video campus tours and college multimedia. Created in 1997, CampusTours helped spawn the growth of the virtual campus tour as an essential component on college and university Web sites. Virtual college tours are distinct from the tours offered by real estate sites and museums in that they often feature student or alumni tour guides, substantial amounts of video, intricate campus maps, and content personalization. Virtual tours mark a fundamental and important change in the way that college students, and especially those in the United States, use the Internet to supplement and, in some cases, replace traditional sources of college information. Today the virtual college tour is one of the first sources of information that most students seek when beginning their college search, and many often view the online tour before receiving printed materials, visiting campus or speaking with a representative .
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