You have to check it out. Google Maps has updated their ‘satellite view’ to see at street level. In fact, they now call it, ‘street view’. It’s a fascinating new way to map things but let me tell you, I found it a bit disturbing to see my own car in my own driveway that up close and personal on an globally accessible website.
Check it out. Google Maps. Put in an address of interest to you – your own, perhaps? – and see what comes up. The option for street view isn’t everywhere – YET – but there’s certainly plenty to see.
Aside from the creepy feeling of seeing my own home at street level, I did find pleasure in touring my country. 🙂
I visited Alaska, LA, Orlando and the New Orleans’ French Quarter. Honestly, touring New Orleans this way was very sad. I started off on Bourbon Street and checked out the buildings and imagined the scent and sound of the place. And then I skipped around and found homes still boarded up from Katrina’s wrath, assorted trailers and piles of debris at curb-sides. Very sad.
But also quite amazing. There I was sitting in my living room, daughter at my side, checking out the devastation – and the beauty – of a place hundreds of miles away. As if that were not amazing enough, I also toured France, Japan and Australia.
Google Maps street view. I’ve yet to make up my mind on this one. I’ve a feeling a love/hate relationship is on the horizon.
Go. Check it out… then let me know what you think.
Debbie, the street maps are pretty fun. Two years ago one of our neighbors was putting in a pool. I wondered how big it was and took a look via the google maps!
Kathleen,
Two years??? I thought this ‘street view’ option was brand new… You mean you saw the pool via satellite, yes? Not by this street view, right? I always found the satellite view amazing! I’d zoom in as far as I could. It truly was fun. But this… where Google cameras are actually at eye level to our homes… is really intense. I read somewhere that they rode up and down streets in large trucks with massive cameras mounted on the top. The cameras, they say, rotated 360° and took photos every 6 seconds or so. I don’t know if that is actually possible, and yet when I search their ‘street view’ maps, I wonder how else they could have accomplished this. I think it’s truly amazing. And disturbing.
~Debbie
Google has decided that its users of their well-liked Google Maps service will begin becoming charged a fee for utilizing their service. Websites that are going embedding a Google Map of their location will be charged a fee for usage.This new Google Maps fee is going to hit mostly the bigger companies, particularly the Travel industry. I suspect that certain websites that are the heaviest users would be websites like TripAdvisor and Expedia.