Google Maps Street View

[Dr Frankenstein]

A couple of things I noticed.  First, the street view shots of my street end 3 lots before where my house is.  I can see down the street past my house, but not a detailed shot.  I can tell it was shot during a local festival because the parking lot down my street was packed with cars, and it's really the only time that the lot is totally full.  Second, the coverage at border crossings is spotty. For example, I'll scan along one road up to the US/Canadian border, then it jumps about a half mile past the border into the other country.

Yeah. Not all GSV drivers carry the required documentation.

[1995hoo]

A couple of things I noticed.  First, the street view shots of my street end 3 lots before where my house is.  I can see down the street past my house, but not a detailed shot.  I can tell it was shot during a local festival because the parking lot down my street was packed with cars, and it's really the only time that the lot is totally full.  Second, the coverage at border crossings is spotty. For example, I'll scan along one road up to the US/Canadian border, then it jumps about a half mile past the border into the other country.

Heh. Our neighborhood was not on GSV for a long time and I kind of liked it. Unfortunately it just showed up recently, and it's pretty damn funny that I can pinpoint the exact week when the GSV car must have come through because my wife's car was parked in our driveway, it had a Romney/Ryan sticker on the rear window (had to be last fall), and neither of our other two cars was anywhere to be seen (so (a) last fall the convertible was in the garage since the driver's window got stuck partway closed, (b) normally my sedan would have been in the driveway, (c) my wife's car would have been in our neighbor's driveway since the lady next door has been out of town a lot and suggested we park there, and (d) since my wife's car was in our driveway it means we were out of town, and that pinpoints it to a five-day period in October).

I've noted that just about none of the border crossings are actually shown and that the GSV car usually takes the last exit prior to a crossing, or else perhaps shuts off the camera before proceeding. I've long wondered if it's some sort of security issue.

Regarding the other comment in an earlier post about "staged" GSV scenes, we could probably devote a whole thread to that topic. Search for 33 Sampsonia Street in Pittsburgh and pan the view to the empty lot. Move the vantage point if you can't see the "staged" scene.

[agentsteel53]

Move the vantage point if you can't see the "staged" scene.

indeed, there is one frame where it is completely blurred out.  moving one atom to the left gives you the scene, albeit with the people fuzzed.  one atom to the right is a worse view of the scene, but no fuzzing.

[1995hoo]

Move the vantage point if you can't see the "staged" scene.

indeed, there is one frame where it is completely blurred out.  moving one atom to the left gives you the scene, albeit with the people fuzzed.  one atom to the right is a worse view of the scene, but no fuzzing.

Yeah. I kind of like the way the guy on the bike is staring at them with a "WTF" kind of look.

Since our house surfaced on there, I became curious whether my parents' had (they live about 20 minutes away from us and theirs wasn't visible either). Sure enough, there it was.....right after my father had had all the grass killed in preparation for re-sodding the lawn. 

[vdeane]

There are some fully visible border crossings through, such as I-81 entering NY.  It would be nice if more of them were; it's handy for clinching highways that end at the border without adding in a trip to Canada.

[mgk920]

I do note that there is a border-straddling road, serving properties on both sides (their equal to Canusa St in Derby Line, VT) that runs eastward from the I-15/AB 4 crossing at Sweet Grass, MT/Coutes, AB and that the Streetview car drove it from the Canadian side.

Kind of interesting and unless you knew that it straddled the border, you'd never guess that from just looking at most of the images.

Mike

[vdeane]

And all the intersecting roads have no barricades or customs stops...

[roadman65]

I would like to know how the Google car managed to let NASA security to allow it on to the restricted area of Kennedy Space Center in Florida?  You can actually virtually drive the road next to the crawler way almost to the launch pads.
You figure that would be a way for Bin Laden and his goons to scope the area out when the program was in effect or anyone of the same modus operandi.

[NE2]

I would like to know how the Google car managed to let NASA security to allow it on to the restricted area of Kennedy Space Center in Florida?

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/streetview.html

[kphoger]

There are some fully visible border crossings through, such as I-81 entering NY.  It would be nice if more of them were; it's handy for clinching highways that end at the border without adding in a trip to Canada.

San Ysidro to Tijuana is also pretty much continuous coverage.

[ilvny]

I saw one of my old girlfriends walking out her side door.  Her face wasn't clear, but I could tell it was her by her appearance and clothes.  I didn't expect that.

Sesame Place in Bucks County is on Street View.  I was surprised to see various rooms of The White House on it.  It was nice of The White House to allow that since most people can't visit The White House without being screened in advance.  People aren't allowed to take pictures or video in The White House, which I think is ridiculous considering that it is a symbol of the United States, but that's for another forum.  Back to Google Street View...

I saw a house in South Philadelphia that was completely blurred.  I also noticed that most of Camden, NJ is not on Street View; only the Camden Waterfront area and the main roads.  I'm guessing that they were too scared to drive on the Camden streets considering the high crime rate.  However, they did drive through high crime areas of Philadelphia.

Another weird thing I've noticed about Google Street View is that you often can't "drive" continuously through an international border crossing.  The imagery will stop at the border crossing and pick up after it.  You have to drag Pegman (the yellow man near the zoom controls) past the border to continue.

And what's with Disney World not allowing Street View and the media to take pictures inside the parks?  Everyone that visits Disney World takes pictures and/or video.  Corporate greed (wanting people to pay to visit) or copyright nuts, perhaps?

[kphoger]

I found this Oops the other day:  bus repairs along the side of the road.

http://goo.gl/maps/9NCZ0

[NE2]

Google Guy getting out of Google Car, talking on Google Phone: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.601959,-81.351094&spn=0.004295,0.008256&gl=us&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=28.602005,-81.350807&panoid=M-nn51SHHKmMG92pSlmcQg&cbp=12,330.16,,0,43.8

[DSS5]

This is one of the cooler things I've seen on Street View. Greensboro College's (a small liberal arts college in downtown Greensboro, NC) graduation march got captured. If it wasn't intentional planning it's one hell of a coincidence. - http://maps.google.com/maps?q=greensboro+college&hl=en&ll=36.072985,-79.80016&spn=0.009418,0.021136&sll=28.602005,-81.350807&sspn=0.001288,0.002642&gl=us&hq=greensboro+college&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=36.072971,-79.799982&panoid=xdO5lJiJMFuL_QZQX8AQzw&cbp=12,245.38,,0,1.87

[Mr. Matté]

Looks like a huge addition of SV imagery came out. Just noticed that a lot of New Jersey and Pennsylvania roads have HD imagery now; there's probably a lot more as well.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Looks like a huge addition of SV imagery came out. Just noticed that a lot of New Jersey and Pennsylvania roads have HD imagery now; there's probably a lot more as well.

Yeah updated enough that my then 21-year old face is on it.

[huskeroadgeek]

Looks like a huge addition of SV imagery came out. Just noticed that a lot of New Jersey and Pennsylvania roads have HD imagery now; there's probably a lot more as well.

Nebraska was updated with a lot of HD imagery as well as some in surrounding states too. I'm guessing they updated a lot nationwide.
I like to take virtual roadtrips on Street View but after doing some in other countries that have HD imagery, I had stopped doing it in the US since HD imagery was so scattered and once you get used to the HD imagery, it's hard to go back to the older pictures. Now it looks like I can start up again since they are getting more and more areas of the US in HD. I'm especially excited about my homestate of Nebraska getting a lot of HD imagery because there was none before. They also finally got I-80 from Sidney to the Wyoming border covered, which had no images at all before, one of the few sections of interstate highway that did not have any Street View images.

[agentsteel53]

I like to take virtual roadtrips on Street View

has anyone made a "street view driver" app yet?  give someone a broadband connection and one can simulate going 80mph down the roads, as opposed to the ~5mph and endless clicking which is currently the case, and makes the idea of "driving" via street view absolutely tedious.

[Lytton]

I like to take virtual roadtrips on Street View

has anyone made a "street view driver" app yet?  give someone a broadband connection and one can simulate going 80mph down the roads, as opposed to the ~5mph and endless clicking which is currently the case, and makes the idea of "driving" via street view absolutely tedious.

There's one on Mapchannels. Unfortunately, you can't choose your own location. You have to pick a city from the list of them. Also, the maximum speed on there is 60, but it does do the street viewing for you.

http://www.mapchannels.com/mm/streetview/driver.htm

[rickmastfan67]

StreetView finally found our road.  Was at home when it happened, but no idea till now that they had been on our road.

[codyg1985]

I think they are updated areas that have experienced population growth and in major cities. Rural areas, unfortunately, aren't usually updated as much.

Huntsville is in the process of being re-street-viewed.

[mgk920]

High-res imagery of the Appleton, WI area that was shot in September of 2012 was just posted, too.



Mike

[on_wisconsin]

Madison was also just updated BUT most of the images are already two years old (Summer 2011). Eau Claire got a nice update with stuff from last year though.

[vdeane]

Madison was also just updated BUT most of the images are already two years old (Summer 2011). Eau Claire got a nice update with stuff from last year though.

Same with Rochester.  I wonder why Google sometimes waits two years to post imagery and sometimes does it immediately.  Rome is still in the old quality, with very spotty coverage at that.  Almost nothing except the arterials is covered here.

[kphoger]

They should decide to do what Disney does, and take old street view shots out of the "vault" a few decades from now, with a bunch of hype attached.