# Google street view - real time or what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925 "2009-04-04T00:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/41 "2009-04-05T16:49:32Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > Only in Britain would a naked toddler cause a sensation. Haha! Which country are you posting from that is so superior? Certainly not the US, where teenagers can be arrested for making porn when they’ve taken a picture of their own body and shown it to no-one (if anyone else remembers, I thinking of the story about that teenage boy who got done for taking pictures of himself and his GF and not sending them to anyone else - I can’t find a link to it. There are dozens of links for different arrests of girls for ‘sexting,’ however). It seems it was just one newspaper writing about the child who may have been naked in one picture - but wasn’t identifiable. I don’t think it’s weird to suggest that Google should delete one particular picture if it accidentally contains an image of a naked kid. Google apparently don’t consider it an appropriate picture to have on the site, either, since they removed it as soon as it was brought to their attention. And it is definitely not something that could only happen in Britain. It’s a bit daft to suggest that it is, really. ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/42 "2009-04-05T18:32:11Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > Well done. That’s more like it. 😉 And entirely accurate. We just finished the section on statistics. I love using real information for test questions and there’s so many places (haha…bad pun) I could go with stats on google street view. Does it represent a random sample of the US? If a x streets in the US were randomly chosen and y% of all streets have street view available, about how many streets from the sample would you expect to have street view available for them? The upper school social studies teacher occasionally incorporates google earth into her lessons and I know the students think that it’s really cool. Word problems about google maps would go over as well as any. It most certainly beats what the book comes up with. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/43 "2009-04-05T18:46:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > They drive a van around the US & take photos. Any given street will be visited about once every 5-10 _years_. Often you can find the shadow of the camera vehicle, or a reflection in a shop window. Not a van in my experience…a late model VW or similar sized compact is what I have seen. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/44 "2009-04-05T23:01:53Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Often you can find the shadow of the camera vehicle, or a reflection in a shop window. Not a van in my experience…a late model VW or similar sized compact is what I have seen. According to the cited wiki article, > [@](#): > > Google Street View displays photos taken from a fleet of Chevrolet Cobalts in United States, Opel Astras in Europe and Australia, Vauxhall Astras in the United Kingdom and Toyota Prius cars in Japan. Pedestrian areas, narrow streets and park alleys that cannot be accessed by car are not always covered. However, sometimes Google Bikes are used.[1] ---
**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/45 "2009-04-06T00:41:15Z")
To CMYK: Well, here it is: you know how sometimes your mouth forges ahead without your brain? After posting that question and moving on to other things, later I thought about it: “what the hell,” sez I to myself, “you dummy, of course it isn’t real time – it’s a frickin’ satellite that orbits the earth and it can’t record every damn thing that’s going on every minute of the day. Idiot!” But I didn’t return to the SDMB and submit that thought. Thanks to everyone for the info. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/46 "2009-04-06T01:29:15Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > To CMYK: Well, here it is: you know how sometimes your mouth forges ahead without your brain? After posting that question and moving on to other things, later I thought about it: “what the hell,” sez I to myself, “you dummy, of course it isn’t real time – it’s a frickin’ satellite that orbits the earth and it can’t record every damn thing that’s going on every minute of the day. Idiot!” But I didn’t return to the SDMB and submit that thought. Thanks to everyone for the info. To be clear, Street View is a group of cars that map the streets over a period of time, and then the images are stitched together and posted online. The orbiting satellites (along with aerial imagery) are used for, well, satellite view on Google. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/47 "2009-04-06T01:42:18Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > To CMYK: Well, here it is: you know how sometimes your mouth forges ahead without your brain? After posting that question and moving on to other things, later I thought about it: “what the hell,” sez I to myself, “you dummy, of course it isn’t real time – it’s a frickin’ satellite that orbits the earth and it can’t record every damn thing that’s going on every minute of the day. Idiot!” But I didn’t return to the SDMB and submit that thought. Thanks to everyone for the info. Google Street View isn’t done with a satellite: they get a bunch of cars with cameras on top to drive down every street in a city, taking a photo of the street every 30 feet or so. They then put the photos online for people to navigate along. When you look at the photos of a street on Street View, those were photos taken from the top of a car at a specific time, on a specific day. Google Satellite View, with the distant aerial birds-eye photos, is the one done by a satellite. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/48 "2009-04-06T02:25:05Z")
Of course, much of the “satellite” footage, especially at the highest zoom setting, isn’t actually from a satellite, but from airplanes. While it is possible to get imagery that detailed from a satellite, it’s not very easy, and is probably only really worthwhile for military targets and the like that the other nation won’t let you fly planes over. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/49 "2009-04-06T03:16:46Z")
Google Street View cars have apparently been spotted in the Toronto area. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/50 "2009-04-06T04:09:01Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Google Street View cars have apparently been spotted in the Toronto area. They would be a lot less conspicuous if they were a solid colour, instead of spotted. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/51 "2009-04-06T04:39:07Z")
[Here](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1032+Oneonta+Dr,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90065&sll=42.350695,-71.080084&sspn=0.012766,0.026178&ie=UTF8&ll=34.115411,-118.215508&spn=0,359.973822&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=34.115428,-118.215409&panoid=xgJGm6036c-YdgA0mEdlOg&cbp=12,287.95047111163876,,0,5) is the street view car in front of the house I grew up in. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/52 "2009-04-06T05:58:17Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > I am sometimes guilty of having little patience for questions which look stupid at first sight. Then I realize there are several factors in play. Often the person asking is quite young and naive and uniformed (or very old). Of course, thinking the question through just a bit would show that it is most likely impossible and the question would be framed as asking for confirmation of the impossibility but such people tend to lack confidence in their own deductive process. If your knowledge of the world is very limited then _everything_ is like magic and anything and everything is possible. This is one reason many scams work. People lack basic knowledge about the world around them and they want to believe that some guy in Nigeria is going to help them get $$millions. Heck, if someone would have told me a few years back that there was going to be a private company that was going to photograph every foot of every major street so that you had a view in multiple directions as if you were walking down the street, and that it would be available for free public viewing, I would have told them they were stupid and crazy. I would have said that not only would such a project be almost impossible, but no one would take on such a project due to it’s complexity,expense, and the fact no one is really asking for it and it lacks any real useful application. But there you go, Google Street view is real. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/53 "2009-04-06T08:15:11Z")
> [@Mesquite-oh](#): > > Heck, if someone would have told me a few years back that there was going to be a private company that was going to photograph every foot of every major street so that you had a view in multiple directions as if you were walking down the street, and that it would be available for free public viewing, I would have told them they were stupid and crazy. I would have said that not only would such a project be almost impossible, but no one would take on such a project due to it’s complexity,expense, and the fact no one is really asking for it and it lacks any real useful application. But there you go, Google Street view is real. Yup, I am an electrical engineer and I am truly amazed at the developments I have seen in the last 20 years. Mobile phones, GPS, internet, wikipedia, Google, Google earth, ebay, Amazon… All these things were just unthinkable two or three decades ago. And if anyone could have imagined them they would have seemed impossible due to cost. Who would be paying millions of dollars just to be able to use something like Google Earth or Google search. And yet we can use it for free. I remeber reading abook about navigation where it said GPS would never be in the reach of the pleasure, private, boat owner due to cost. I think part of the reason people ask if Google Earth is real time is that they really do not understand what is behind it all. Once you do not grasp the magnitude of things it all just becomes magic and anything is possible. I, on the other hand, am an engineer and I can appreciate what is underlying all this. There are millions and millions of man-hours behind all this. Entire generations of engineers and workers. It is not like Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and the telephone was invented. It took decades of improvement and millions of work-hours to set up the network, invent and build the automatic exchange, etc. Then the transistor, then the monolithic integrated circuit. these things are marvels in themselves and yet they are only one of the things which make things possible. The microprocessor, invented in the 1970s made the PC possible. But todays microprocessors are orders of magnitude more powerful than the ones built 30 years ago. Then the entire concept of the Internet, routers, fiber optics… It is just amazing. I never cease to marvel at all this and it is because I know how much there is under all this. And I never cease to be grateful for all that is available to us today, including medical care, for which other people and earlier generations worked so hard. We do not always appreciate just how lucky we are. Had we been born just 100 years ago life would have been much harder and much more limited. ---
**Author:** ![FalconFinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@FalconFinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FalconFinder)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/54 "2009-04-06T15:32:20Z")
What amuses and annoys me about Street View is that when you put in an address, you’re maybe on the same street, but you are nowhere near the actual address. So, I can’t imagine how useful this is when you’re not really getting proper information. At least, that’s how it is in the towns around here where I live. I initially had the thought that maybe they did that on purpose to help with any privacy issues, but that wouldn’t really make any sense, would it? I had to laugh when I started searching my family and friend’s houses and using Street View. I was at my sister’s house when the Google car came by. I was doing lots of projects during that time and would have \*really \*chuckled if they’d happened to go by when I was at my parents’, my sister’s, and my friend’s houses! ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/55 "2009-04-06T19:01:05Z")
My favorite Street View image is one of the [driver of the car.](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=135+St.+James+02116&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.149289,92.988281&ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=42.944106,-71.45249&panoid=Rxjp1Kp0swSgU3QNRI9OVg&cbp=12,36.248217909652794,,0,33.8476821192053&ll=42.943371,-71.452482&spn=0.013446,0.032401&z=16) This picture is taken in Manchester NH, and must have been during decent weather, based on the clothing of the driver. (I assume it’s the driver, they are standing next to an open door of the photo-car.) They turned off about a mile from my house, and have most of my town, but not my road, nor the road I live off of. I’d like them to get the whole thing… who knows if they’ll be back soon. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/56 "2009-04-06T21:41:09Z")
> [@FalconFinder](#): > > What amuses and annoys me about Street View is that when you put in an address, you’re maybe on the same street, but you are nowhere near the actual address. So, I can’t imagine how useful this is when you’re not really getting proper information. > > At least, that’s how it is in the towns around here where I live. > > I initially had the thought that maybe they did that on purpose to help with any privacy issues, but that wouldn’t really make any sense, would it? Address numbers are interpolated. Or did you think they had the actual location of every single number? Still, in my experience they are quite well placed. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/57 "2009-04-06T21:47:31Z")
> [@FalconFinder](#): > > What amuses and annoys me about Street View is that when you put in an address, you’re maybe on the same street, but you are nowhere near the actual address. So, I can’t imagine how useful this is when you’re not really getting proper information. > > At least, that’s how it is in the towns around here where I live. > > I initially had the thought that maybe they did that on purpose to help with any privacy issues, but that wouldn’t really make any sense, would it? > > I had to laugh when I started searching my family and friend’s houses and using Street View. I was at my sister’s house when the Google car came by. I was doing lots of projects during that time and would have \*really \*chuckled if they’d happened to go by when I was at my parents’, my sister’s, and my friend’s houses! It varies a lot, IME. If I put in my postcode, I can see right inside my windows. Same goes for some other addresses I know. OTOH, looking up a pub the other day I got a photo of somewhere several doors away. It depends whether the car can stop long enough to take a picture, I guess. > [@sailor](#): > > Address numbers are interpolated. Or did you think they had the actual location of every single number? Still, in my experience they are quite well placed. Postcodes here do get very precise - don’t know what it’s like in the US. My postcode only applies to my flat and the ones above it, and it’s not a large block. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/58 "2009-04-06T23:14:48Z")
> [@Mesquite-oh](#): > > no one is really asking for it and it lacks any real useful application. Have you never been driving down a block squinting to try to find and read an address number, all while trying to navigate traffic and such? Knowing what a storefront or other building looks like from street level, knowing that you’re looking for the blue house, or the bar with the red sign in front, is all kinds of useful. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/59 "2009-04-07T07:29:01Z")
[The Register](http://www.theregister.co.uk/) (UK IT news with a cynical slant) has series of pages that show peoples photos of the Google Streetview car, with the photo from Streetview showing the photographer :smack: Link [here](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/24/surveillance_feedback_loop/). And El Reg tried the **Live Google Streetview of London Central** gag for _April Fool_. That could have been been fun. Si ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925/60 "2009-04-07T07:52:44Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > [The Register](http://www.theregister.co.uk/) (UK IT news with a cynical slant) has series of pages that show peoples photos of the Google Streetview car, with the photo from Streetview showing the photographer :smack: That’s funny! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-street-view-real-time-or-what/491925.md?page=4)