Official Street View Website

For Google's official website on Street View locations (present and future) and much more, go to:

Saturday, August 2, 2008

No Borders in Street View

Street View is now available for three countries: France, Italy, and the United States. At one point, Street View was avilable for a few meters in Canada, on the Peace Bridge across the Niagara River in Buffalo's coverage. This is what is left in its place:


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At one point, these images were available, and I remember seeing them; they did not show anything questionable. Why were they removed?

The Tour de France route goes partly into Cuneo, Italy, which is available in high-resolution Street View. For the most part, Street View follows the exact Tour de France route. However, when it comes to the border between France and Italy, it is not covered. Why not? See this view:


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This is as far into the Alps the Street View van went, for some reason. But now check out this other view:


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Keep moving forward on the above view, and you'll see that Google's car drives right over that pile of snow without any marks! How does that happen? But the car finally stops when it comes to this larger pile of snow a bit later:


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In the United States, Street View cars go almost anywhere they wish, even sometimes accidentally on private property. But many of these coverage areas in America go across state borders; for example, the Philadelphia/Wilmington coverage area in Pennsylvania and Delaware has some coverage in Maryland. But some coverage areas come close to state borders, but turn around; for example, the Huntsville coverage area in Alabama comes quite close to Tennessee, but stops.

So if you'd like to see state border signs on Street View, there are plenty. But if you'd like to see national border signs, you might have to wait for quite a while.

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