Method and system for computer-based navigation

A video route-previewing system includes a route-previewing device for receiving input defining a starting point and a destination point and for identifying a route based on the starting point and the destination point. A preview-generating device receives the route from the route-previewing device and generates an image request for the route. A street-level imagery server receives the image request from the preview-generating device and communicates imagery of the route to the preview-generating device in response to the image request. The preview-generating device generates a time-compressed nonlinear route preview from the imagery of the route and communicates the preview to the route-previewing device. The route-previewing device displays the preview video of the route. The preview video may time-compress segments without navigational decision points and present in slow-motion segments around navigational decision points.