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.