Google’s Street View comes to Dallas, Fort Worth, etc.
Posted By Chad Jones in Square Pegs on December 11, 2007
Sometime within the last couple days, Google uploaded all the panoramic images it's captured of the D-FW area, with the end result being totally cool yet slightly freaky.
Street View is a feature that's been available for NY, LA and others for quite some time, but North Texans had to sit and wait and actually go to places if we wanted to look at them. Lame.
Here's the PegNews HQ.
Dealey Plaza + Reunion Tower
Staring up Reunion Tower's ass.
City Hall.
People doing stuff. And stuff.
Trying to turn the tables (or camera) on the driver of the Google car.
Eh, you get the idea.
The biggest surprise is the amount of surrounding areas covered aside from D-FW, including Plano, Addison, Richardson, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Farmers Branch, and on.
Click here to start wasting time instantly. First to find a crime frozen in time wins a prize.
Chad Jones, says:
Boston, Indianapolis, Detroit, etc. had to wait until today, too. <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/11/technology/street.php">Here's </a> a good piece with more info and the expected privacy concerns.
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Tracy Yost, says:
I stumbled across this (coincidentally) today while looking up an address on google. I think it's awesome ! I don't know how anyone could legimately be concerned about their privacy, the images are all "in public" - if you don't want someone to see you doing something, you don't do it "in public" anyway, right ?
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Scott Doyle, says:
I'm honestly surprised how much is available on this thing. At some point you'd think it'd be a risk to the safety of the public...I mean, an upskirt of reunion tower readily available on google?
They even have <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=world+trade+center&near=new+york+city,+ny&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=40.722185,-74.007297&spn=0.018734,0.047035&z=15&om=0&cbll=40.71147,-74.010523&cbp=1,313.77625191088265,,0,-1.7039330156853003">ground zero</a> on hiyah (granted, it's been done...but still).
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Donna Chen, says:
I saw one of these vehicles driving around in Grapevine (that section isn't available on Google Maps yet) and was wondering when Dallas was getting Street View. I am surprised at the level of detail available on the DFW street view, in most other cities (e.g. San Fran and Houston), only the major streets are available. But here, all neighborhood streets are available, too!
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James Scott, says:
Holy crap...that's creepy. At least our lawn was mowed and the grass hadn't turned brown for the summer yet when they drove by the house.
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Pavel Lishin, says:
I can see my house from here!
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Mike Orren, says:
Am I the only one really underwhelmed by this? Maybe it's because they skipped my neighborhood while completely encircling it.
Now this is a map:
http://hongkong.edushi.com/Default.as...
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Rawlins Gilliland, says:
This thing's been around a long time. The first time I saw it I was able to zero in and could even seen my car in the driveway. Now that's bad news for you out there who are, shall we say, 'visiting' someone's spouse on your lunch hour. How long till Google Earth is enterred as evidence in a trial?
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Chris Curotolo, says:
I like that when I enter my address, my neighbors house pops up. Thank you, Google.
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Donna Chen, says:
Mike, I've seen these little Google camera strapped vehicles "surveying" areas that aren't yet on the Street View system, so my guess is they're uploading Street View for DFW in phases, I'm sure soon all of us will be on there (my neighborhood is also currently non-Street Viewable)
Chris, I think Street View is only able to locate an address by its location on the street (via GPS) without access to parcel information. At least that's what my very basic knowledge of GIS systems tell me. Thus, when you type in an address, it default views to a segment of the street where your street # would approximately be. Then, you can use the panning option on the Viewer to "turn around," so to speak, to view your house.
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Lisa Lawrence Merritt, says:
I luuuvvvv how you can zoom in on someone's front door, the car parked in the drive and the license plate....
Also the fact that the pervs on the internet will have a field day finding your child or teenager.
What was that old ad slogan? "Reach out and touch someone"????
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Anne Young Fritsche, says:
Not only is my street in Forest Hills included in Street View,* I'm *in Street View, driving down my street (face and license plate number helpfully obscured by Google).
That was a mega-meta moment.
(And how did I not notice a vehicle trolling my neighborhood with a camera strapped to the roof? Sheesh.)
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Michael Davis, says:
Mike O,
That looks like the same tech I saw a while back...in Japan they have 3-D GPS Navi for cars that looks just like the picture in the your link from street level.
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ericthegardener, says:
Rawlins Gilliland said:
"This thing's been around a long time. The first time I saw it I was able to zero in and could even seen my car in the driveway."
I think you are confusing Streetview with the Google satellite images that have been around for awhile. Streetview for Dallas just started yesterday and is a completely different animal.
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Scott Doyle, says:
No worries Rawlins, my coworkers made the same mistake. They're over twice my age, but at least there's a precedence of some variety.
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Jeremy Dunck, says:
@Mike being underwhelmed & Chris being smug about off-by-one:
Geocoding (the location of a specific address at a point on the globe) is really freaking hard to do well, and Google does it pretty well.
Anyway, it certainly is useful as a house-shopping tool. :)
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Alex Bentley, says:
Chris, the same thing happened with my address, but Google does another cool thing -- you can edit their location arrow. Just click Edit, then Move Marker, and it will let you put the arrow wherever you want (within reason -- you can't move it more than 200 yards). Like Jeremy said, Google does their best, so the least you could do is help 'em out a little.
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Chris Curotolo, says:
Jeremy - my tone seems to have been completely lost in my comment. I was going for was sarcastic, not smug. One house off is still pretty damn good.
Alex - Thank you, I did overlook that feature but my point is that I'm actually glad my address is connected to another person's house. The whole idea of being able to look up any address and zoom in and out on a person's house creeps me out.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to edit my address 200 yards to the east...or west...no one will ever know :)
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Pavel Lishin, says:
I'm ok with people staring at where I live through Google Street View. I'd rather them sit at home and pretend to stalk me if the alternative is actually finding my address and watching me in real time.
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polchasa, says:
Pavel, I absolutely agree with you!
Привет :)
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