Reading the Toronto Star online this morning, there is an article mentioning that Google Street View for Toronto is now up and running.
I grew up in Etobicoke, and decided to check out what the old house looks like these days (my parents moved when I left for university in 1991), so I zoomed into here. Looks like that Japanese maple tree we had is still going strong, since I can barely see any of the house. But what are all those people standing in the driveway looking at…?
Two doors down, there is a van on fire! Yet the person in the front yard it seems strangely uninterested…
If you move down the street to the right as you look at the van (it seems that the camera car was moving from the right to the left), you can see in the first picture that there’s just smoke. If you start moving back towards and past the van, you can eventually see concerned citizens running into the street as the flames go higher, and the person in the front yard on her cellphone.
Looks like my street was done much earlier than most - none of the trees have leaves and even though the snow is gone, you can clearly see it’s cold enough for frost to be on the grass.
On the bright side, no burning vehicles anywhere in sight.
It looks like the Google guy drives by just as it jumps from smoldering to flaming. He gets around the block and you can see that the fire trucks haven’t yet arrived (still black smoke).
Our place was pictured during the summer. Luckily I had just mowed the lawn…
They have Calgary done too! I saw the googlemobile with the camera on top 3 times in my neighbourhood, but it seems they didn’t get me any of the three times.
On Facebook, a friend linked to Christie Pits Park. Naturally, the Google van passed during the garbage strike, and the hockey rink is filled with garbage bags. I found it rather depressing.
Montreal is up too…both my husband and I were home when they passed by our street, or at least we hadn’t taken our cars if we were out!
Oh this is priceless. You can also see it from another street (Newcross). That is one unflappable Google driver. There is a burning van and he simple drives by, circles around and completes his route as planned.
I went to check out if Saskatoon has Street View yet, but it doesn’t. What it does have is a geolocation feature - it asks if you it can be allowed to pinpoint your location. I let it, but it says I’m located in the business behind my apartment building.
Edit: oooooh, it has street directions too now in some places!
I passed a Street View car about three or four months ago in my small town in southern England. Can’t believe they’ve prioritised Toronto over my neighbourhood!
I saw it twice here, once while I was a pedestrian across the street from where I worked at the time. The cameras must have been off because I was on my way back from lunch when it went by. That shot is from morning; three women just got off the bus and are on their way to work.
That is peculiar. The only thing I can think is that for some reason (poor quality? user complaint?) they had to remove one photo, so they came back later and replaced it.
It’s similarly interesting to look through the photos in one city and see ones from different seasons. My neighbourhood was apparently shot in April of this year or so, judging from the vegetation, but I can tell Laval was shot later than late May because a metro entrance that was only opened then is shown as being open.
