# Google Maps "Street View" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 29, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958 "2007-05-29T18:14:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/1 "2007-05-29T18:14:28Z")
[San Franciscans will recognize this fellow in Willie Mays Plaza](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.766942,-122.429669&cbp=1,319.3428142584406,0.535509446441902,2&ie=UTF8&ll=37.768968,-122.42942&spn=0.005004,0.008111&z=17). [http://gigaom.com/2007/05/29/google-maps-goes-streetside/](http://gigaom.com/2007/05/29/google-maps-goes-streetside/) Nifty! And certainly better for those of us who recognize landmarks better than (poorly lit) street names. ---
**Author:** ![Barrington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Barrington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrington)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/2 "2007-05-29T18:19:31Z")
The option doesn’t seem to be available here in the UK. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/3 "2007-05-29T18:25:26Z")
Damn! > [@Google Maps Help Group](#): > > Right now this feature is available in Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area, but we hope to expand our coverage in the future. I realize that there would be a lot of abuse if they opened this up to just anyone, but man would I love to take part in adding to this. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/4 "2007-05-29T18:26:27Z")
Pardon, San Franciscans will recognize [THIS](http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=37.778498,-122.391627&spn=0.001251,0.002028&z=19&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.77799,-122.39169&cbp=1,68.2189509646304,0.573529437352552,3) fellow. It appears to be available only in [San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, New York, and Miami](http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.232253,-97.558594&spn=39.86194,66.445313&z=4&om=1&layer=c) for now. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/5 "2007-05-29T18:31:15Z")
Well, I recognized the first place as the Lucky 13, one of my favorite bars, and withing crawling distance of my friend’s house. And yeah, I recognize that other guy too. ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/6 "2007-05-29T18:33:07Z")
Cool! I did the Empire State Building. Yay, wait till I tell everyone at tomorrow’s staff meeting. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/7 "2007-05-29T18:35:57Z")
It’s available in parts of Oakland and Berkeley, too, as well as some highways, even a few rural ones. Judging by the tree-trimming on my block, these pics are taken within the past two months, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Camelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Camelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camelot)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/8 "2007-05-29T18:47:48Z")
I came here to say that this is the coolest thing Google has done yet, and then I realized that you can click the picture and whirl it around. _AWESOME_. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/9 "2007-05-29T18:58:41Z")
I swear I’ve seen an independent variant of that at some point a couple of years back that was done in sequence shots in all 4 cardinal directions every so many feet, and you could click to virtually drive up and down each street over a large portion of (IIRC) NYC. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called, but it was pretty neat. I presume this “street side view” is only available if your domain originates from a city it covers. ---
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/10 "2007-05-29T19:05:42Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] I swear I’ve seen an independent variant of that at some point a couple of years back that was done in sequence shots in all 4 cardinal directions every so many feet, and you could click to virtually drive up and down each street over a large portion of (IIRC) NYC. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called, but it was pretty neat. [/QUOTE] Amazon’s A9 had (maybe still does) a feature like you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/11 "2007-05-29T19:12:52Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] I swear I’ve seen an independent variant of that at some point a couple of years back that was done in sequence shots in all 4 cardinal directions every so many feet, and you could click to virtually drive up and down each street over a large portion of (IIRC) NYC. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called, but it was pretty neat. [/QUOTE] I saw stuff like this on the Web in, what 1993? 94? Something like that. And I think MIT and Carnegie-Mellon were doing it in non-HTML form before then. And then when Apple brought out Quicktime VR, they were doing something similar as a demo for that. So the concept is certainly nothing new; it’s just that you need fat pipes and a server farm the size of Google’s to roll it into production. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/12 "2007-05-29T22:13:02Z")
Huh… it’s also interesting how the Street View is more current than the Satellite view. This freeway offramp in the Sat view has been demolished for years, but the Street View shows the current intersection. https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.775348,-122.426013&cbp=1,122.01804599578,0.475388840475557,0&ll=37.775814,-122.425512&spn=0.001251,0.002908&t=k&z=19 That offramp was replaced with this offramp, which, according to the sat view, is still beneath a freeway. https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.77185,-122.42338&cbp=1,338.8299462419614,0.502436997256061,0&t=k&ll=37.772356,-122.423385&spn=0.001251,0.002028&z=19 ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/13 "2007-05-29T22:30:41Z")
[QUOTE=alanak] Amazon’s A9 had (maybe still does) a feature like you’re talking about. [/QUOTE] It’s gone now (though [a9.com](http://a9.com) still works, but it’s just a search engine) so I can’t tell, and though it’s archived on [archive.org](http://archive.org) it doesn’t display anything useful. As I recall it was a pretty simple interface and seemed more to be a proof of concept than anything. You had your main view with thumbnails of what was in the other directions at your current locations and arrows to tell it which direction to travel in, as well as a small overview map to tell you where you currently are. It also only covered a certain portion of New York (possibly Manhattan). Still, it was cool. You could virtually wander all over that area and see the sights at ground level on either side of the street. ---
**Author:** ![Daffyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daffyd/32/8923_2.png) [@Daffyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daffyd)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/14 "2007-05-30T01:23:48Z")
Cool! The Lucky 13 was just around the corner from one of my first apartments in SF… and I managed to (slowly) “drive” down 880… Think it took about the same amount of time as it used to when I was commuting! What would be really cool is if Google let you run it as a movie… I’m assuming from the quality that they just took stills out of a videocamera… I wanna put it back and go wherever I want… Sort of like a trip home without the jetlag! Thanks for sharing it. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/15 "2007-05-30T01:49:21Z")
I can see my house! [W00t!!!](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=,+San+Francisco,+San+Francisco,+California+94122,+United+States&sll=37.77854,-122.39144&sspn=0.001166,0.002167&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=37.771936,-122.457583&spn=0.009329,0.024376&z=16&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.767228,-122.458559&cbp=2,179.83,0.496404459986644,0) (It’s the blue one) ETA: On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t post my address. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/16 "2007-05-30T05:05:17Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] I can see my house! [W00t!!!](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=,+San+Francisco,+San+Francisco,+California+94122,+United+States&sll=37.77854,-122.39144&sspn=0.001166,0.002167&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=37.771936,-122.457583&spn=0.009329,0.024376&z=16&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.767228,-122.458559&cbp=2,179.83,0.496404459986644,0) (It’s the blue one) ETA: On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t post my address. [/QUOTE] That’s OK, we can still find it. We’ll be over for drinks tomorrow at 6 sharp. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/17 "2007-05-30T06:12:42Z")
I also see they’ve added exit numbers to interstate highways and 3-D wireframes of buildings in metro areas (St. Louis, MO, at least). Are those new or am I just unobservant? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/18 "2007-05-30T06:32:41Z")
Wow! That is so cool! I can see both my current apartment and the new one I will be moving to! ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/19 "2007-05-30T06:45:37Z")
[QUOTE=Hunter Hawk] I saw stuff like this on the Web in, what 1993? 94? Something like that. And I think MIT and Carnegie-Mellon were doing it in non-HTML form before then. [/QUOTE] One of the earliest such systems was the Aspen Movie Map, from when back when, in 1978. > **[Aspen Movie Map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_Movie_Map)** > > The Aspen Movie Map was a hypermedia system developed at MIT that enabled the user to take a virtual tour through the city of Aspen, Colorado. It was developed by a team working with Andrew Lippman in 1978 with funding from ARPA. The Aspen Movie Map enabled the user to take a virtual tour through the city of Aspen, Colorado (that is, a form of surrogate travel). It is an early example of a hypermedia system. A gyroscopic stabilizer with four 16mm stop-frame film cameras was mounted on top of a ca... [Aspen Moviemap](http://www.naimark.net/projects/aspen.html) (with a short video) ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958/20 "2007-05-30T16:21:02Z")
I’ll have everyone know that Lucky 13 is still just as glorious a shithole as ever. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-maps-street-view/405958.md?page=2)