On Google Maps, they’ve been adding numerous American cities to their “Street View” section for about the last couple years. As of now, nearly all major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and more than a few smaller ones are included. However, one notable exception is the Seattle-Tacoma area (i.e., Microsoft country). It’s not because they haven’t gotten to doing the Pacific Northwest because Street Views for Boise, Spokane, and Portland (including the Salem area, the North Oregon Coast, and the Columbia Gorge as far east as Biggs Junction) have been available for some time now. Does anybody think this is not deliberate on Google’s part?
No idea if that’s the actual reason, but it’s the first thing I thought when I saw that rather glaring omission.
I doubt that’s it. They haven’t done Washington DC yet either. Unless, of course, they’re sticking it to the US government.
I’ve never seen that before in google maps. (I live in one of the unmapped areas).
It’s a bit creepy.
I agree, it is like Google is working ever harder to be the stalker’s best friend. If I lived in the Seat-Tac area I would be thankful to be in an unmapped zone.
They haven’t done my street yet, but they did the next street over.
So they’re obviously sticking it to ME.
Bastards.
Google may have come to an understanding with the department of homeland security regarding this. They are already working with the military on streetviews of bases, after they accidently mapped one.
Probably not all of DC is going to be a security zone, but I would bet that enough of it is.
Declan
I find it a little creepy as well, although I’m not sure why. I was surprised to find Street View available on my street, which is a sort of tucked away quiet cul-de-sac in a somewhat rural area. It’s not like you can see anything you couldn’t see if you drove down my street and turned around in the cul-de-sac, but there is my house, right there, on the intar-Webs, for all the world to see. I’m a little afraid of how far the technology will take us. Soon they’ll be able to zoom in through the window and read the crawl on CNN on my living room TV from the other side of the world.
What I want to know is when Street View will be available on this side of the pond. Apparently the cars have been doing the rounds for a couple of months (including getting a parking ticket in London but nothing on the actual tubes yet.
Most of Australia has recently gone live. I think it’s pretty cool. It’s not like they’re really delving into anything that isn’t already public, and they will delete any images that anybody complains about.
I know, even gravel roads in Tasmania. This is so cool, I am going to waste hours exploring! 
Really? When I first saw it I thought it was fascinating, and a fantastic idea. Turn-by-turn directions are well and good until you run into a snarl of tangled urban intersections without street signs, it’s very nice to be able to examine the surroundings a bit. There’s no information available somebody driving down the street wouldn’t have access to.
It’s amazing how many small communities and country roads they’ve done in Australia.
My parents live on a small (30 acre) property about 20km outside of Goulburn, and their road has Streetview. I can look in their front gate and see their house behind the trees.
My sister and her family live in a small seaside community about half an hour north of Coffs Harbour, and they’re also on Streetview.
My mother is not very web savvy; she can only get dial-up internet access, and basically only has email so that she and i can keep in touch. I’m going to email her a screenshot of her place from the air, and one of her front gate. It will probably freak her out.
Street view is awesome, and now with google’s launching their own super-high-res satellite into space, I wonder if google maps will be even better quality, lower zoom levels, and pretty much let you tilt the camera into a streetview at the lowest zoom level.
A surprising number of places are being mapped. Hell, my house is street viewable and I live in a suburb of Des Moines - not Seattle! Most of my town is and a sizeable hunk of Des Moines proper is as well, along with a lot of really tiny towns in the countryside of central Iowa… bizarre. Runnells, Napier, Ogden… we’re not talking small as in 5,000 people, we’re talking small as in “there is one gas station and a church and a couple houses and that’s it” small.
So far, the only Street View available on your side of the Atlantic is the route for the Tour de France.
One thing I’ve found kind of interesting about Street View is that I can now go back and look at some of the houses I lived in over 30 years and see how much they and the surrounding neighborhoods have changed.
I flip off the sky every morning, just in case.