Italian Street View Released!

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Well, Google sure has been cranking out those Street View locations recently! Only a few days after the Spanish release of Street View, we can now see it in four cities of beautiful Italia!

1. Lago di Como
2. Milano
3. Firenze
4. Roma

to be continued...

Oi! No need to criticise

Muno Foofa of PC Advisor is one of the first residents of the United Kingdom to want Google Street View in the country. However, he/she (what kind of a name is Muno?) heavily criticizes Google for the long wait. Some quotes from his/her post:

Google Street View sounds like fun.

It is fun! Why else would I type this blog? ;-)

But, depsite the sightings of Google cars driving around in the UK there are precisely no Google street views of our little island. Google Street View was launched in May 2007. It's nearly 2009. Wasn't the web meant to be super quick at information delivery? Ditto, Google?

You've seen plenty of Google cars driving around your country. Please give them time, it's not really a "little island"; there are zillions (or squillions) of streets and roads in the United Kingdom. Google's being very nice to do this for you.

There are 17 locations in bloody Australia (their phrase, not mine), for Pete's sake. Japan gets a few, as well.

But none in Blighty. Is Google too busy smudging British people's faces? After all, we have a lot more people than Australia.

It could be because of the privacy laws of the European Union, or the fact that many Londoners have been yelling at the Google Street View car's driver lately (I am not kidding, this has happened). London is often considered the most photographed city in the world, and Street View being added to that is enough to scare some people.

If he/she is using population as an argument, then he/she should probably let the Chinese get their Street View first. And then the Indians, and Indonesians, and Brazilians, and Pakistanis, and Russians, Bangladeshis, Nigerians, Mexicans, Germans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Egyptians, Turks, Iranians, Thais, and Ethiopians.

Why did Google choose the United Kingdom? I really don't know. It might be because they have a Google office in London.

According to my predictions on the right sidebar of this blog, the British Street Views should come very soon, and for the whole country.

¡Quatro!

Thank you, claudia64! ;-)


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Street View is now available for four cities in Spain:

1. Barcelona
2. Madrid
3. Sevilla
4. Valencia

The Google press conference will take place in Madrid tomorrow.

Google Earth for the iPhone

Reported pretty much everywhere, there is now a Google Earth application available for the iPhone, and yes, this includes Street View.

There's so much to read about it, so please look to GEarthBlog.com for much more information.

Here is the official Google LatLong/Google Mobile Blog post.

Street View Conference - Madrid

According to Blog Urbanismo, Google has invited some people to a press conference in Madrid, Spain, at the headquarters of Google Spain. The invitation reads,

"Te invitamos a la rueda de prensa de la presentación en España de Street View el próximo martes 28 de octubre en Madrid."

This either means that the conference about a future Spanish release of Street View is going to be hled on October 28, or that, and the Street View for Spain will be released on October 28.

Keep an eye out for Spanish Street View!

National Parks in Street View

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Biscayne National Park, Florida


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Congaree National Park, South Carolina


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Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio


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Death Valley National Park, California/Nevada


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Everglades National Park, Florida


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Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming


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Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina


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Joshua Tree National Park, California


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Kings Canyon National Park, California


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Lassen Volcanic National Park, California


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Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado


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Saguaro National Park, Arizona


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Sequoia National Park, California


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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming/Idaho/Montana


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Yosemite National Park, California

Not First isn't the Worst

Lately around the Internet, people have been blogging about seety, London's very own street-level panorama website. It's no different than MapJack or EveryScape; however, it has been included in real estate website NovaLoca.

Google Street View cars have been seen in London already, and many Londoners on the Internet have been somewhat upset about that. So some bloggers have gone too far and said that seety has beat Google.

It's not a competition.

First of all, Google Maps is the website and Street View is a feature. In seety, the panoramas are the website and the map is a feature. I would prefer a map website than a panorama website.

Secondly, Google Street View has 90+ locations, while seety has...oh yeah, one.

Third, Google Street View cars have already been spotted in not just London, but all over Great Britain. When Street View is released in the UK, it will dwarf seety.

In conclusion, speed does not matter when it comes to quality.

Street View Mexicana se está Construyendo

Sorry about the lateness. On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, a red Street View car was spotted in Ciudad de México, according to Alt1040.

By the way, Ciudad de México is Mexico City to most Americans. ;-)

I CAN Believe It's Not in Street View

Users all over the Internet have many good ideas for Street View coverage. Here are some ideas people have had, and possible reasons why they haven't been completed yet.

• Honolulu, Hawai'i - Sure, they've done islands like Japan and Tasmania already, but Japan is easy to get to from China, as is Tasmania from Australia. But getting to Hawai'i from anywhere is a very difficult task.
• San Juan, Puerto Rico - This one's easier to get to, but since it's still a United States territory, there might be some confusion over the privacy laws.
• Washington, District of Columbia - Security, security, security.

I Can't Believe it's not in Street View!

It's been 1 year and 150 days since the Street View feature was released in Google Maps, and we now have 90 locations all over the world, and that's only the camera icons. The number of cities/townships/villages is possibly over 1,000! Then how come there are still some locations missing?

• Memphis, Tennessee - The 18th largest city in the United States does not have Street View coverage yet? Even Fairbanks, Alaska, has imagery available.
• Baltimore, Maryland - Right after Memphis: the 19th largest city in America. Not only it is big, but it is full of history and culture. If that's not enough, Google has an office less than 40 miles away!
• Seattle, Washington - See this post. Oh yeah, and this one.

German Street View Coming Spring 2009

According to GoogleWatchBlog, Stefan Keuchel, a Google spokesman, was interviewed about the upcoming Street View update in Germany. He said that Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich, are already photographed, and they, possibly along with other German cities, will be released in Google Street View in spring of 2009.

If this is true, it will be the first announced date of a Street View update.

Sweet View

Google had a bake sale to display some of their near-infinite creativity. One of the desserts that caught my attention was of course, the Google Sweet View display. It was complete with a Google Maps marker, a Peg Man picture, and my favorite, a Google Street View car with cupcake cameras on top.

You can read more about the bake sale at the Official Google Blog, or see some high-resolution pictures of it at the Google Free Bake Sale 2008 Picasa Web Album.

"Really Real" Estate

Check out this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online website. Not long ago, Mr. Matt Uhrig, a house hunter, found a property using an online real estate search. He was interested in one property near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

That property's listing claimed that the home included a 1½-car garage. Along with this listing, Matt decided to see the home in the neighborhood on Google Maps Street View. It turned out to be a smart decision, since the picture from Google showed that the property had no garage.

Matt and his wife soon drove by the propoerty to see who was correct, and Street View was showing the truth: no garage.

Moral of the story: Before buying a home online, check Street View. You know, just incase.

Also, who has 1½ cars?

Oui, Love Street View!

Please pardon the bad pun; I couldn't resist.

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Google has added and/or updated the following French cities' Street Views:

1. Lille
2. Lyon
3. Marseille
4. Nice
5. Paris
6. Toulouse

The labels for these cities has in addition been updated, so that the locations appear as city names and not as Tour de France stages. This came as another unexpected surprise by Google. Thanks, Google!

By the way, the Peg Man Cycling bug has been fixed.

100 Posts and 10,000 Hits

Street View Stuff has reached two milestones this week: over one hundred posts and over ten thousand hits.

Our first post was on March 30, 2008, when Street View had only 43 locations.

To all the readers of this blog, thank you!

Panorama Paranoia II

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a group of parents want th entire city of Pittsburgh taken off of Street View, the main reason being a fear that pedophiles could track down where children live using Street View.

Here's a good idea: Arrest the people doing it, instead of banning a tool otherwise useful.
However, Google could easily improve their imagery technology to photoshop all people out of pictures, instead of blurring them, since those who are harmful can still see it is a child, even with their face blurred.

Here is the mom who started it all.

谷歌可以在台湾

According to IslaFormosa, a car with cameras mounted on top of it (most likely and hopefully a Google Street View car) was spotted in Yonghe City in Taipei, Taiwan.

The blogger of the post says that Street View released in Taiwan would be quite helpful, especially to tourists who cannot read Chinese very well.

The G1 My Location Feature

Google has released the above video, talking about the new My Location feature in Android's Google Maps application. One cool feature about it is, of course, the Street View. Who couldn't love that?

For more information about the other cool stuff about the G1, check out the Official Google Mobile Blog.

Spotted on Singaporean Streets

I would've posted this earlier, but I had to go to church.

A Street View car has been spotted in southern Singapore, according to CNET News. This is the smallest nation Street View cars have been spotted in so far, but Singapore City is enormous, so it makes sense that Google's chosen this city to photograph.

The exact location of the sighting has been added to the blog's Google My Map.