Land of the Midnight Street View

According to Life in the Knife, the capital city of Canada's Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, is being photographed by Google Street View.

Also, according to CBC News, the not-so-nearby city of Whitehorse (in Canada's Yukon territory) is also being covered. The driver of that car was told not to conduct any interviews, but said that he'd been driving through Whitehorse for the past three days.

The Canadian Street View release should be huge.

Getting Fancy

Today, Google has changed the way Street View works with a new 3D-type feature that is viewable whenever you click the arrow buttons. You can try it out below:

View Larger Map

This is very similar to EveryScape's 3D motion feature.

What are your thoughts on this new feature? Is it a slight improvement, or does it take away from the simplicity Street View once had?

One Small Step for Pegman

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Google Maps has made Pegman into an astronaut today. Interestingly, the artists at Google decided to design an outfit different from Pegman's cousin on Google Moon.

Thanks, Steven!

Google Soap View

According to Telegraph.co.uk, the set of the soap opera Coronation Street was recently photographed by Google Street View cameras. These views are planned to be released in a few days. One interviewee said that "Corrie" is one of the most famous streets in Britain, even though it is fictional.

Unlike the Street With a View project, no special poses by cast members of the show were made, as far as I know.

Brasileiro Carros estão Aqui

According to Fernando Quadro, Google cars have been roaming Brazil since July 2, 2009. Three states are currently being filmed:

1. Minas Gerais
2. Rio de Janeiro
3. São Paulo

Crazy for College Campuses

According to The Wired Campus, the Google Trike team is planning to take Street View photos for college campuses. So far, the following three colleges are being photographed:

1. California State University at San Diego
2. University of San Diego
3. University of Pennsylvania

If you're a college student, keep an eye out for the Google Trike!

Suspects Sighted with Street View

This has been all over the Internet. I usually don't post popular Street View news like this, but it's a slow Street View week.

Tons of News

Sorry for the delay; I try not to blog on Sundays.

Changing the Rules: To appease the strict privacy rules of the European Union, Google has agreed to stop holding the original (non-blurred, non-edited) Street View video files. However, this would mean there is more chance for error in the pictures, and these errors are nearly impossible to fix. Be prepared for thousands of coverage gaps in the middle of European streets. Read more here.

Google Trike Update: Two main new locations were added from Google Trike imagery this week: Disneyland Paris and a bicycle trail in Monterey, California. Read more here and here.

Pancake Navigation

Google has released a new smart navigation tool feature called the "pancake". This way, you don't need to continue to click the Street View arrows to get from one place to another; you can zoom across from one point to another. To use it, just hover your mouse until you see a three-dimensional transparent oval or rectangle. Double-clicking it will zoom the Street View to adjust to that specific location. The 3D-like effects are similar to EveryScape's, but you only use them if you want to. If you double-click a rectangle, it will zoom to a view of that part of a facade. It's too amazing to describe in words, so try it out for yourself!

View Larger Map

Here's a video of the new feature:

Twitter Tracking

It turns out that Twitter is an excellent place for finding Street View sightings. Just searching for "Google Street View car" has revealed that people have apparently recently seen Street View cars in Los Angeles, New York, and Austin–three locations that haven't been reported yet! Since regular blog posts can't keep up with this, a new widget has been placed on this blog's sidebar, "Twitter Car Sightings". Hopefully, it will help us keep up with locations not covered by the media. I'll save the regular blog posts for media coverage.

So, get ready for updated imagery in the United States!