Just when I think Google can't do anything else to impress me, they come along and do something amazing like adding Street View to Google Maps. They haven't added it on their blog yet, but you can play around with it now for US cities San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami. Basically the new system allows you to get a photo of any street location in these areas - and then pan the view around and move around as if you were actually there. Here's a direct link which should work for you (zoom in until you see the little yellow man), and a screenshot so you can see what it looks like.

all i can say is, WOW!!!

Oh what I'd give to get a job at Google and just think up crazy whacky s*** all day.

why not think up a way to get a job at google

i have to say, that is really cool.

Obviously that requires a lot of manual photography. Have they integrated any live video / pictures yet? I'd been thinking they should use their search index to put live cameras (like traffic cams) into the map view... but this is also pretty excellent.

why not think up a way to get a job at google

Too busy wasting time on teh QGLs

Holy f*** that's cool.

thats insanely awesome.. wonder if you can get the details of when and where they will be so you can hold up banners and stuff as they drive past

i can´t wait for when google asks me for a photo of my wang!

i think you'll find they just ripped off the technology already developed in Deja Vu

Hurry up and do Brisbane google!

next census i'm putting Google as my religion.

one day google will rule the earth

Heres the announcement on Googles LatLong blog. Theres also a video description right over here featuring one of their web developers in an orange wiggles kit.

This seems like Google are making good use of things like geocoded photos, but I wonder if this feature uses images from the public domain ie Panoramio or if theyve gone out and taken them with specialised hardware to get that 360° thing happening.

Also the guys over at CASA|Digital Urban made up a similar viewing technique however its applied to Google Earth.

The most useful feature I would like for a project im tinkering with is suburb outliers/boundaries. Of course its already working for most of the USA data.

they advertise roles at google australia all the time. you may not have seen them since they don't use job agencies or because you weren't serious about really wanting a job with them.

holy s*** that is just insane.

these google people are gonna be millionaires!

u think so? i don't know if there's much money in the internets.

the internet is a fad

Microsoft beat Google to it in this case, Virtual Earth. Basically they got guys to drive around all the streets in some big american cities with cameras in all directions. So you can choose like a racing car and drive through the streets frame by frame. I think its in beta stages.

Im glad to see Google using the idea as well, I mean it appears MS copied google with their map software so its only fair.

Holy s*** I just discovered you can double click on the photos and zoom in

Trog love google long time.

f***, what a job! go around and take panos for google!

the internet is a fad

rolf! i remember c***s in IPT at school saying that in 95, and saying they would never use it.. Where is kurt young now?

yeah MS had this about a year ago. But still, Google maps is better than virtual earth because it has australian street maps :)

oh nice, look at what MSFT are cranking out

http://radar.oreilly.com/200705300048.jpg

Some funny street views.

Eva whispers in your ear "Ion Cannon charging..."

google maps funny

some of the interesting stuff turning up on street view

and some peeps dont like it

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/smile-its-googles-candid-camera/2007/06/04/1180809390551.html

* N U K E D *

By trog

I don't see why that was nuked. Idol's link doesn't go to any funny things as far as I can tell.

Edit: never mind, I found the funny.

last edited by Cl1nt at 14:02:23 04/Jun/07

A bunch of links relating to the topic.

http://mashable.com/2007/06/03/street-view-maps-these-panties-have-been-removed-due-to-a-privacy-violation/
http://mashable.com/2007/05/31/top-15-google-street-view-sightings/

The car hey used.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/31/google_maps_zoom_her.html

well that's strange, the funny didn't show up on my home pc but showed up at work so :p

man peeing on side of road

I don't think he is peeing... although his pants are down slightly and he might be fiddling with his belt or something, his backpack is right at his feet, as is his bike.