Google Maps adds Street View function
Using Google Maps to peer down from the heavens and zoom into your best friend's back yard never gets old. Today Google further fed our God complex by introducing a brand new feature to its all-encompassing maps called Street View. Though it only appears to be working in major cities like the Big Apple, Street View allows you to drag a little yellow figure (kind of looks like the AOL dude) around the map, and wherever you drop him a window pops up showing you a 360-degree image around which you can pan to see what the figure sees at that location. It also shows you which direction each street flows, and whether it's two-way or one-way.
My overactive imagination explains the technology this way. As you drag the figure around the map, a small hover droid is activated and follows your movements over the cityscape of New York City. When you let go over, say, 436 11th Ave., the droid rapidly descends in front of the Jacob Javits Center and quickly takes a series of snaps around its spheroid body, which are then uploaded via a sat-com link to the servers at Google HQ.
Seriously, it's a pretty trick feature that should make driving to your destination much easier since you will actually know what your destination looks like. Hopefully the feature quickly rolls out in other cities besides the biggest ones.
[Source: Google Maps via Digg]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ckm 3:39PM (5/29/2007)
Amazon's A9 was doing this 2 years ago. Last I heard, they dropped it as it was too expensive to keep the database current. Since Google has more money than it knows what to do with, perhaps this won't be an issue for them...
Chris.
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mr.ed 4:57PM (5/29/2007)
Very handy to find that somebody's been scamming by giving phony address. It can be hard to tell the difference between an apt. bldg. and a warehouse using Google Earth.
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jgp 5:22PM (5/29/2007)
This is awesome.
Wonder when they'll be adding this for Dallas.
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SN 5:28PM (5/29/2007)
Great new feature. I would love to see a rollout map of future cities and dates. However, I wonder if the visible license plates and faces of pedestrians will alarm the privacy-sensative...
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johdaxx 7:04PM (5/29/2007)
Looks like it doesn't support views of my favorite nudie bars yet...La Pigalle in Paris, France for one.
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Jeff 10:39PM (5/29/2007)
San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver (?) are apparently up
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peekytoe crab 9:46AM (5/30/2007)
there used to be a great site called "dizzy city" (or something like that); it was around about 7 seven years ago, then vanished. maybe google scooped up the remains. it was incredible -- it had every single block in manhattan in its database.
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jamie 11:06AM (5/30/2007)
OMG!
This could put the papparazi out of business altogether!
Can you Google say, Lindsay Lohan at Teddy's (underage drinking bar for celebrities); or Paris Hilton in the Lynwood slammer; or how about Britney Spears walking barefoot into a public restroom?
Maybe you can track the last 391 Ferrari Enzo's before they crash and burn.
I wonder if they can check my ID while its still in my purse though? Hmmm
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JR 10:58PM (5/30/2007)
I think I got it:
I tried to read a cab's licence plate, (in Miami Beach), and every time I moved the arrow, to go south, the same cab was in front of me! The cameras are obviously vehicle based, but I wonder if they are taxi based? New York has a lot of coverage, and they have consolidated cabs, all one company. But in Chicago, where there are many different cabs, we don't have street view.
But this is just my guess.
(to see the cab i'm talking about, go to Ocean & 13th in Miami Beach, face south)
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mikiyas 12:42AM (6/02/2007)
they actually have dedicated cars for this job.
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Liters 5:45PM (6/03/2007)
Here's a link to a reflection pic of the dedicated cars they use. I think this confirms it's a VW Beetle.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t198/69Liters/GoogleStreetView.jpg
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Liters 5:46PM (6/03/2007)
It's reflected in one of the windows of Miami's "The Collection" no less...
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t198/69Liters/GoogleStreetView.jpg
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YNot 1:35PM (6/04/2007)
Here is another site that has a large selection of StreetView finds:
http://www.mapmole.com
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Street view 7:11AM (6/06/2007)
Huge collection of street view sightings can be seen at:
http://www.streetviewfun.com
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geotrotter 7:11AM (6/14/2007)
I added here the most amazing Street View : http://www.geo-trotter.com/cat-street-view.php
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geotrotter 7:11AM (6/14/2007)
I added here the most amazing Street View.
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geotrotter 7:12AM (6/14/2007)
I added here the most amazing Street View.
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geotrotter 10:16AM (8/08/2007)
I added here some amazing Street View from the last update (08/2007).
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geotrotter 10:34AM (8/08/2007)
I added here the most amazing Street View from the last update (08/2007): http://www.geo-trotter.com/cat-street-view.php
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