Browsing Tag: google maps

    street-view-house
    Miscellany

    Our New House is on Google Street View

    October 21, 2012

    This is the first time I’ve ever seen Casa McGee on Street View. New house, or old house.

    Google drove some of the main streets in our area about two years ago, or maybe more, but it didn’t do a thorough photo shoot in our old neighborhood at the time. So the old house wasn’t there.

    I saw the Street View car driving through town back in the spring and it was here for a good 4-5 days, it seemed. I remember seeing lots of tweets from various Tri-City folks over the course of a week.

    And now, six months later, the new imagery is online and … BAM … there’s Casa McGee.

    street-view-house

    The fine print at the bottom says the imagery was taken in April 2012. Judging by the condition of our lawn, it looks like early April — the grass wasn’t high enough to need a cutting yet. So, that’s about a month after we moved in.

    What’s cool is that there are a lot of new homes still being built in the neighborhood and on our street, so this imagery is already wayyyyy outdated. But, a year or two from now, when the whole neighborhood is built out, these images will (probably) still be online and it’ll fun to look back and how things looked just after we got here.

    Miscellany

    Google’s New Map Data is REALLY Old

    November 6, 2009

    Much has been made in the search industry recently about Google’s decision to ditch Tele Atlas and use its own map data for Google Maps. But did you know that Google’s map data is at least 10 years old in some places? Have a look at this Seattle map:

    google-fail

    The Kingdome? This Kingdome?

    kingdome implosion

    That was March 26, 2000. So the map data is almost a decade old. Yikes. Apologies to anyone looking for Qwest Field. Check back in 10 years.

    (photo by Seattle Municipal Archives via Creative Commons)

    Miscellany

    Google Maps Tells Me to Kill Myself and Tourists

    May 14, 2008

    Part of the family vacation last week involved taking the kids down into Philadelphia to see the historic sites — Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center, etc. It was a great, great day and a good time was had by all. Perhaps more about that stuff later, but the point of this post is to share the … interesting … directions we got from Google Maps and the “Street View” tool.

    The trip began in Bristol, PA, where my parents live. I could easily get down to the historic district, but wasn’t sure on some of the last couple turns to find the right parking lot. Here’s how Google helped:

    Google Maps 1

    On exiting I-95, we’re apparently supposed to drive through this concrete wall on the way to Independence Hall, causing certain death for the McGee 4. Oddly enough, I don’t even recall seeing this concrete wall at this location. Later, there’s this:

    Google Maps 2

    As we get closer to Independence Hall, we’re supposed to turn right and take out a group of tourists, including one in a wheelchair. Nice!

    I’m sure there’ll be more funny Street View directions as Google expands this feature in more and more cities…..