# Websites where you can see what any city looks like
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 29, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189 "2009-03-29T15:34:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/1 "2009-03-29T15:34:00Z")
If I want to know what any random city looks like, is there website I can go to? (besides Google street maps)
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/2 "2009-03-29T15:43:33Z")
Define “look like” for this purpose.
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### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/3 "2009-03-29T16:02:17Z")
Snapshots of various places in the town, so you can get a sense for the ambience, atmosphere, architecture, land features, etc.
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/4 "2009-03-29T16:15:45Z")
Google maps has photographs. Click the “more” tab at the top of the screen while in Satellite view and check the Photos checkbox.
Google Earth also has the photos, but isn’t technically a website.
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### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/5 "2009-03-30T04:30:58Z")
> [@Athena](#):
>
> Google maps has photographs. Click the “more” tab at the top of the screen while in Satellite view and check the Photos checkbox.
>
> Google Earth also has the photos, but isn’t technically a website.
Not overhead. I want photos of a city from within the city. The kind of photos you’d have if you went somewhere and wanted to show people what that place was like.
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### Author:  [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/6 "2009-03-30T04:44:23Z")
I can answer this, but it means promoting my own Web site. Mods … permission to do so?
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/7 "2009-03-30T05:02:08Z")
Don’t forget that most cities on Google Maps have Street View. Look for the little blue guy on the left and move him to any highlighted road. You can walk down the city streets looking in all directions.
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/8 "2009-03-30T06:03:09Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#):
>
> Not overhead. I want photos of a city from within the city. The kind of photos you’d have if you went somewhere and wanted to show people what that place was like.
Athena told you what to do. Google Earth has photos taken at ground level. Zoom in to the area you’re interested in and there will be little icons all around which, if you click on them, will bring up the photos. It’s exactly what you want, it seems.
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### Author:  [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/9 "2009-03-30T06:44:01Z")
> [@Cagey\_Drifter](#):
>
> Not overhead. I want photos of a city from within the city. The kind of photos you’d have if you went somewhere and wanted to show people what that place was like.
Google Earth (and Maps, but it requires more work – as Athena pointed out) has this feature. It’s not Street View, but when you zoom into an area, camera icons pop up in various places – these are photos that people have uploaded and tagged to that location.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/10 "2009-03-30T07:37:39Z")
A lot of Google Earth’s human-eye photos come from [Panoramio](http://www.panoramio.com/), so you can try searching their site directly. You can also try generic photo-sharing sites like [Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/) or Picasaweb, which have bazillions of amateur photos from all around the world.
Also, [Yelp](http://www.yelp.com) is a great resource for photos of US businesses/venues in most cities (if you want to see what restaurant X or bar Y looks like instead of a city at large).
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### Author:  [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/11 "2009-03-30T11:18:18Z")
Okay, at the risk of self-promotion …
[http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/503](http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/503)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/websites-where-you-can-see-what-any-city-looks-like/491189/12 "2009-03-30T12:29:13Z")
And you can use just plain old image search. On Google or [Live.com](http://Live.com) or whatever engine you like, switch to image mode and enter the name of your city and country & see what comes back.