# Google's New Toy
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 5, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883 "2005-04-05T18:51:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/1 "2005-04-05T18:51:46Z")
My brother sent me the attached link and I was able to see both my childhood home and my address now pretty clearly. Just hit the link and type in an address. Here’s the info. I expect it’s PR speak from google.
Give this a whirl…
Yesterday, [http://maps.google.com](http://maps.google.com) released a feature that allows you to click between satellite photos and street maps.
Same zoom, drag and print capabilities as before, this time with satellite photos.
Resolution varies depending on the region, and some photos are out of date - but you should really try this out.
Try pulling up a map, clicking the “satellite” button in upper right corner.
Hold down the left cursor button to drag the image.
Try finding nearby businesses, or get really good directions from point to point.
This leaves Mapquest in the dust.
If Google keeps bringing out innovations like this, they may actually justify their stock price!
If somebody already posted about this then…welll…nevermind. 😉
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/2 "2005-04-05T19:04:05Z")
That’s a nice app.
Google just gets it, don’t they?
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/3 "2005-04-05T19:06:05Z")
I was going to add “too bad you can’t link to a map”, but there’s a button for that too.
color me impressed.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/4 "2005-04-05T19:10:29Z")
Hey, I can see my house from here! Well, they were off by a couple of houses, but they were close…
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/5 "2005-04-05T19:17:56Z")
They were off by a couple of houses on my mom as well.
But you can see the screened in back poarch.
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/6 "2005-04-05T19:20:50Z")
That is amazingly cool. I’ve just traced my route to work, and the walk I take at lunch, and visited various sites around San Francisco. I am extremely directionally challenged, but the map/satellite combo almost makes me understand where I’m going.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/7 "2005-04-05T19:21:21Z")
It is pretty cool to see satelite photos. However, the first two addresses I looked up, they had wrong.
My current home: The arrow indicating where my house is on my street is way off. I live on a street that makes an L bend. I live halfway down the upper part of the L. This map shows my house on the lower part of the L near the corner and across the street.
My childhood home: Arrow indicates a house on the wrong side of the street. I can clearly see “my house” but the arrow is pointing at the house across the street.
I just looked up my son’s school, and Google’s maps indicate that is is about 2½ blocks from where it actually is. I can see the school clearly on the map, but the indicator arrow is point at a house some blocks away.
So I’m really not impressed.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/8 "2005-04-05T19:22:30Z")
Hey, they include sat photos of military bases.
I scrolled from my mom’s house to Tinker AFB.
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### Author:  [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/9 "2005-04-05T19:23:36Z")
I just wish you could zoom in even further in the satellite photos.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/10 "2005-04-05T19:30:45Z")
> [@Duderdude2](#):
>
> I just wish you could zoom in even further in the satellite photos.
Some you can, some you can’t. I looked at ones around the Albany, NY area that I could zoom in enough on to see cars on the interstate. Couldn’t make out the model, but could probably tell if it’s a SUV, truck, or sedan.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/11 "2005-04-05T19:35:56Z")
OK, maybe not close enough to tell the type of car, but I can still clearly see the cars themselves. The map of my current place seems accurate, but the satelite photo is one of the older, low resolution ones. However, one of the nicer ones stops just short of my street, so I can zoom in on that and see all the stores and restaurants I go to.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/12 "2005-04-05T19:37:57Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#):
>
> So I’m really not impressed.
You’re not impressed that you find an actual satellite picture, or map, of any address in the US in about 5 seconds. . .even if in some cases it’s a whopping 2.5 blocks off?
In a BETA version of software?
What internet are you surfing?
FWIW, my childhood house and current house are dead-on.
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### Author:  [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/13 "2005-04-05T19:48:11Z")
> [@Duderdude2](#):
>
> I just wish you could zoom in even further in the satellite photos.
Depends on where you are. Whilst digi-crusin’ around Plattsburgh, I could use maximum zoomosity, but I had to go up three levels to get satellite photos of Roanoke. Can’t tell about the accuracy of my current location (it seems close, but I’m judging based on relative position in the entirety of Roanoke, so it’s hard to say), but in Plattsburgh, they got within two houses of my grandparents’ address. Not too shabby.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/14 "2005-04-05T19:50:02Z")
I haven’t checked on any military bases, but some photos are deliberately degraded for security reasons. Go look for “100 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003”, then try to zoom in on the large building to the north-west of there. You’ll find it pixellated to hide details (as with the office buildings to the north and south of it, but not with the Library of Congress buildings or the Supreme Court building, in the same neighbourhood).
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/15 "2005-04-05T19:59:47Z")
Does a decent job finding my place, but the satellite photos of my area are at least 3 years old. There are some newer buildings that don’t show up at all on the map. And the pointer missed my place by a few blocks as well.
Still, this thing is awesome. I’m showing it to everyone I know!
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### Author:  [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/16 "2005-04-05T20:01:43Z")
It can’t find my house. HAH! I remain hidden. NEENER! NEENER! NEENER! Can’t Find MEEEEEEEEE!!!
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/17 "2005-04-05T20:07:56Z")
I LOVE IT! Thanks!
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### Author:  [@Offensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Offensive)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/18 "2005-04-05T20:13:14Z")
Say, aren’t there are few… CONTINENTS missing? You can’t help but feel a little rejected.
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### Author:  [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/19 "2005-04-05T20:18:28Z")
This is like everything I hated about Terraserver fixed, and I loved Terraserver otherwise.
Try Providence, RI if you are bored. Terraserver did a nice job of it.
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### Author:  [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-new-toy/297883/20 "2005-04-05T20:18:49Z")
It’s picture of the world isn’t a satellite photo. You can see underwater features such as the mid-atlantic ridge. And then there’s that startling lack of clouds.
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