# How does GoogleEarth get all those "street views"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 8, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268 "2008-12-08T17:28:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/1 "2008-12-08T17:28:43Z")
Who takes those pictures, and with what type of camera? Can anyone take a picture and send it to them? Does Google Earth hire people to walk down random streets taking a series of pictures for them? (The new version is soooo cool! It’s like jumping into a distant place from the comfort of your own chair. Boy, these intronet tubes are really something!)
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### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/2 "2008-12-08T17:34:49Z")
they have a car that drives around and takes pictures. if you point the view downward on Google Maps, you can often see the car.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/3 "2008-12-08T17:35:16Z")
> **[Google Street View](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View)**
>
> Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expanded to include all of the country's major and minor cities, as well as cities and rural areas of many other countries worldwide. Streets with Street View imagery available are shown as blue lines on Google Maps.
> Google Street View displays interactively ...
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### Author:  [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/4 "2008-12-08T17:35:45Z")
They use a variety of vehicles with cameras mounted atop them, taking photos every few yards or so on each side of the vehicle. When you’re using it, look down , and you can sometimes see the car the camera’s attached to.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/5 "2008-12-08T17:36:05Z")
It’s an [array of cameras](http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/12/11/Photographing_Bostons_streets/) in a [ball](http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/camera_head.jpg) mounted on a car that simply drives down the street.
GoogleEarth also allows user-submitted photos, but those are marked as such.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/6 "2008-12-08T17:40:07Z")
Street View car getting [a ticket](http://www.flickr.com/photos/damianspain/2584019149/).
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-googleearth-get-all-those-street-views/476268/7 "2008-12-08T18:22:37Z")
Nice to see that they were using a Prius.
I live in a neighborhood that is fully covered with Street View, but my own particular street is one-way, and my block is not covered. Bit of a shame.