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Posts with tag street view

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Google, iPhone

Google Earth comes to the iPhone, and it is good

In an impressive case of two great tastes that taste great together, Google Earth for the iPhone is now available in the iTunes app store. If you like Google Earth on the desktop, you'll like it even more when you can manipulate the globe with your fingertips. Zooming and rotating are easy with the familiar iPhone pinch motion, and the iPhone's GPS adds a new dimension to Earth.

I was hooked on this app from the first time I made Google Earth zoom in on my location. The visuals are stunning, and you can activate Street View once you're zoomed in. It literally took two clicks to get a view of my front door: one click on the location button, and one to allow Google Earth to use the GPS data. There's also a compass button to point you North, and a search function that even includes your Address Book contacts. The only thing missing is a tilt mode: it would be fun to explore the earth by using the accelerometer, but it wouldn't be very practical.

UPDATE: Google Earth does have a tilt mode! You can turn it on and off in the preferences. Thanks, Belden.

CORRECTION: Street View isn't coming until the iPhone 2.2 firmware is released. The satellite image of my apartment is just at an odd angle and looks really good on an iPhone screen. Thanks, Steve.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Googleholic, web 2.0

Googleholic for June 10, 2008



Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google! In this edition:
  • Street View expands
  • Docs gets PDF storage
  • Feedburner's new address
  • Google Reader, Contra-style
  • Grand Theft Google
  • GBroswer rumors

Read more →

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Googleholic for May 13, 2008

Googleholic for April 13, 2008
Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:
  • Search for real estate on Google Maps
  • Faces getting blurred in Street View
  • Gmail gets slight loading speed boost
  • Wikipedia comes to Google Maps

Read more →

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Googleholic for April 29, 2008

Googleholic for April 29, 2008
Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:

  • Street View for Google map directions
  • Google's PageRank for images: VisualRank
  • Stock Screener for Google Finance
  • Speaker Notes and YouTube videos for Google Presentations

Read more →

Filed under: Google, Googleholic

Googleholic for April 15, 2008

Googleholic for April 15, 2008
Welcome to Googleholic - your bi-weekly fix of everything Google! In this edition:
  • Geotagged YouTube videos on Google Maps
  • Google Earth 4.3 to be released later today, includes Street View
  • Market leader in China within 5 years - Goodbye Baidu?

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, News, Google

Google Maps diminishing value of homes, causing "mental suffering"?

google maps street view of oakridge lane
A couple is accusing Google of diminishing the value of their property and causing them "mental" suffering" for including their recluse home in the Google Maps Street View project. The road leading up to their house is apparently labeled "private", something the Street View operator must've missed. We checked the Street View footage up to the house and didn't notice any clear "private" signs, but don't take our scientific analysis as fact.

They didn't like that Google invaded their "privacy". Some of the court papers are available online, and if you check them out, you'll notice mainly boring gibberish but also the address of the home. Suing Google has already done more damage to their "privacy" than the pictures on their own.

Aaron and Christine Boring want at least $25,000 and the 360 degree pictures destroyed, but something tells us the case doesn't stand a chance against Google's well paid, state-of-the-art, corporate lawyers, which come from the best lawyer factories in the nation.

Filed under: Internet, Features, Google, Googleholic

Googleholic for March 28, 2008



Welcome to Googleholic - your bi-weekly fix of everything Google.

This week:
  • Google revamps privacy policy
  • Street View gets more cities
  • Get rid of Google Calendar spam

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Four more cities added to Google street View

Google Street View Hollywood Blvd
Google has added Street View imagery for 4 additional cities: Orlando, Houston, San Diego, and Los Angeles. The San Diego Street Views feature high-resolution imagery similar to that used in San Francisco.

Of course, the first thing anyone does when Google announces new features is indulge their inner voyeur by seeking out the strangest possible street views. So far, the best we've found is a Stormtrooper on Hollywood Boulevard and a photo glitch that makes these two women look like they're being sucked into a digital vortex, feet first.

Anyone got something better/more bizarre?

[via Streetviewr]

Filed under: Internet, Web services

EveryScape: Google Street View killer?

If you were impressed with Google Street View, you ain't seen nothing yet. EveryScape is a new service set to launch this fall that presents a realistic 3D view of streetscapes and public places by putting together information from 2D photos.

You can navigate through the streetscape by clicking on green arrow buttons. Where information is available, you can also click on icons to find out what buildings you're looking at, which is a nice feature. There's a sample streetscape of the area around San Francisco's Union Square up on EveryScape's website. Here's a little screengrab we did (the graphics are actually a bit more fluid than the video suggests, but our video capture software prefers low framerates.



Based on the sample, the images appear to be more detailed than Google Street View, with no visible gaps between images.

EveryScape plans to add more cities, starting with Boston, New York and Seattle. While the streetscapes will be photographed by EveryScape photographers, the site also plans to use photos submitted by users to flesh out their offering

[via O'Reilly radar]

Filed under: Google, Time-Wasters

Cottage industry pops up around unusual Google Street View sightings

Google Street View robotSo it turns out Google Maps Street View is good for finding a lot more than aliens, cats in windows, and guys exiting porn shops.

In fact, in the short time since Google launched its new service, finding oddball photos has become an addictive new way to kill time for some. But if you don't have the time to search the country street by street for photos of robots, you might want to check out Streetviewr (despite the hokey web 2.0 insistence on leaving the final "E" out of the site's title).

Streetviewr is a rather simple page where users can upload interesting or funny images found using Google Street View. A rather large number seem to be photos of people with missing heads and cars that don't look quite right because the 360 degree photos didn't line up very well. But some of the user-submitted coordinates and captions are good for a laugh.

[via Frantic Industries]

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, Google

Google Maps Street View invades privacy, exposes alien life

tabby cat
That certainly didn't take long. Google launches a new "Street View" mode for Google Maps, showing thousands of streets up close and personal, and within 24 hours, users start to get a bit creeped out by just how close up those photos are.

BoingBoing reader Mary Kalin-Casey
noticed that you can see in her apartment window. In fact, when you look into her living room, you'll see her cat peeking back at you. Of course, the first thing she did when she discovered this invasion of personal privacy was to email the link out to the world, so go figure.

But wait, that's not all. As one Gizmodo reader noticed, if you know where to look, you can also find what appears to be an image of E.T. attempting to phone home -- and almost getting sliced in half by a laser beam. Or something. You can check out that image after the jump.

Read more →

Filed under: Web services, Google

Google Maps Street View goes live

Google has launched its new "Street View" feature for Google Maps, and it's pretty sweet. We'd post a picture, but a video is worth a thousand words... or pictures in this case. Here's a video from Barry Schwartz showing a Street View of the area around his office building in Suffern, NY.



Basically, the Google Maps toolbar is getting a little more crowded, with a new "Street View" button next to "traffic." When you click the button, certain streets in covered areas (such as New York and San Francisco) will turn blue, and a little yellow man shows up on the screen. Click the yellow dude and drag him over to a blue street to view a street-level image.

Once you've got the street view, you can click on arrow buttons to move forward or backward. Click elsewhere on the image and drag left or right to change your angle. All the images cover 360 degrees.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

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