I CAN Believe It's Not in Street View

Vox Populi author Sam Sweeney is surprised that Detroit, MI, came before Washington, DC, in Street View. He writes a blog for the Georgetown Voice, and is disappointed that the capital of the United States has been delayed for Street View release. Washington is one city that, because of its high security, does not surprise. Here is a list of other cities that obviously will be delayed for a while:

• Grand Canyon, Arizona - Although it's a wonderful national park, there are very few roads that show the main wonder, the Grand Canyon itself. Most roads in the area would show mostly forest after forest after forest, and they aren't as tall as Yosemite's.
• New Orleans, Louisiana - Although a large city, because of the damage from global warming and/or Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, it wouldn't be too entertaining right now, and Google might be considered inconsiderate if they did release New Orleans.
• Washington, District of Columbia - Security, security, security.

Street View Directions

On Google Maps, you can now use Street View for your directions, an idea that has been popularized on YouTube.

On Google Maps, ask for directions located in a Street View covered city (see full list on the right sidebar) and when directions come up, you'll see a few camera icons next to some steps. Clicking one of these icons will show you the Street View for that step. The Street View will look familiar, but the differences are that the yellow bar which shows the name of the street is blue for directions, and a large white arrow will appear in the direction of your directions. Following this arrow will take you on a virtual drive through your directions.

Above the image are instructions you are virtually "following". Also, two more options are available on top of the Street View image. These will speed up your drive. Clicking Prev Step will take you back a step, and clicking Next Step will take you forward a step.

This is very useful for previewing roads you have never driven on before, therefore giving you a better chance of not getting lost, especially handy in complicated cities such as Denver, Raleigh, and Santa Fe.

So you're sure not to get lost, use the new Google Maps Street View Directions feature.

Privacy invasion? No way.

There have been many complaints from Americans about privacy concerns. One newspaper even brought up the argument "What if you're caught in a place you're not supposed to be?", while others don't want pictures of their cat on Street View. What is all this madness? Google is very nice to do this for us, and especially to provide it free to everyone. It is very useful and fun, and the images aren't live, and many are of poor quality. So why are people against it so much?

Street View images are very old, and when Google makes a mistake, they fix it ASAP. Remember the Boring family? They sued Google because their car drove on their private road. That was Google's mistake, and the images have been removed, but the Borings still aren't happy. These types of cases are true mistakes, but they should not be fussed over so much. Also, filing a lawsuit because someone found your hiding place actually makes people want to see your home, not get people away from it.

One lady in Oakland found her cat sitting in her window of her home on Street View, and was creeped out by the detail on the Internet available. First of all, although cats can be quite defensive of their personal space, you can't really invade a cat's privacy. Does taking a picture of an elephant from space invade a zookeeper's privacy? Nope.

Then there are all those images of people in weird positions. You find people in those positions all the time. These are just regular people that we can laugh at. It's not an invasion of privacy if you're seen in a public area, no matter what you're doing. However, some images we wouldn't like to see, such as a woman's underwear or a dog pooing, so Google helps us out there, but those still aren't an invasion of privacy.

And finally, there's Googlephobia, where people think that Street View might go in their backyard or inside their homes or even real-time live video. hat' just not going to happen soon, and laws would really have to be changed for that to be legal, so don't worry about that.

Street View is a tool, not a toy or a spy. Google makes mistakes just like you and me, but at least it's rare, and the cost is definitely worth the benefit.

PropertyMaps adds Street View too

#4 on the list is now PropertyMaps, the newest member of the Real Estate Websites with Street View Club. Since the word "Maps" is in their title, you'd expect this new Street View feature to be very well-designed, and it is.

If the home is covered by Street View, along with the home's information will come a Street View tab (seen above) with Street View Guy looking to the left. Click it to see a Google Maps satellite view of the home with Street View turned on. Below the map, you will see the Street View for the home's neighborhood. This comes in a very large frame, which gives the feeling of being right there.

"Alburquerque"

Although Google is known for their maps, and the Street View feature has been extremely popular, today a mistake was noticed on the map. The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been misspelled "Alburquerque" on the Google Maps Street View ballon. Thankfully, the name is correct on the map.

This mistake has been reported to Google via their Maps Help Center.

Google Updating Kansas City

According to KMBC FirstNews at 9, the Google car has now been spotted in Raytown, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. As you can see in the picture, Raytown is currently not covered by Street View, so this could mean that Google will be updating the Kansas City area for Street View, and possibly on the next Street View update.

If you live in the Kansas City area and see the Google Maps Street View car in your neighborhood, "call the KMBC 9 Newsroom at 816-760-9335 or send an email to news@kmbc.com", as their website says.

Bike Crash Recorded

Kensington Victoria started a new popular Street View sighting: a bicycle fall in Cleveland. Drive down the street to see the fall captured by the Google car.


View Larger Map

Poor guy; poor bike.

UPDATE: These images have been replaced.

Funny Adventure Game

http://keirclarke.googlepages.com/streetviewlatlng.htm

Here is an adventure game built entirely with Google Street View. Follow the directions (you may need to zoom out first) to play. Each time you move, you run into a certain situation, and the goal is to "escape the clutches of cruel fate", however it is quite hilarious to try all the options given. Try it out!

UPDATE: The images of San Francisco, etc., have been replaced or removed, so the game might not work properly.

Street View in New Zealand Coming Soon

Another Google Street View car was spotted in New Zealand, according to Start-UP. The journalist reports that he had met with Julian Persuad of Google NZ, who revealed that Google is currently taking pictures of "every street in New Zealand" working on Street View for New Zealand. The reporter also saw a black car with a camera on top of it on the way to work. He followed it for about 3 miles and managed to take this photograph:

A bucket? Obviously it was raining, but a bucket?

And now, RealEstate.com!

Well, Street View is obviously a great tool for use with real estate, since Trulia and DotHomes have added it, and today, so has RealEstate.com.

Unfortunately, RealEstate.com only has most of the current 43 Street View locations in their directory. Fairbanks, Anchorage, Yosemite, Albuquerque, Nashville, and Madison are not included on RealEstate.com.

The way their maps tool works for Street View is by clicking on Street View Guy and moving the cursor to the desired Street View location, probably marked by the orange icons. When you click on the location you desire, a new "window" will pop up which will display the Google Maps Street View.

If you'd like to see this in action, you're going to have to play around with the search before getting the hang of it.