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The moment they start letting people put messages in Street View is the moment it becomes worthless. How are we supposed to use this stuff if Google allows their employees to put messages in the pictures? I mean where does this stop? Does Google allow Ford Motor Company or Apple Computer to send their employees out to get their pictures taken with Mustang Convertibles and iPhones because they paid Google? I can only guess that Street View is a joke and those who really want to build a business should use Pictometry instead.

Work for Google, put messages in Street View

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As the Street View car passed Google’s California head offices, the Googleplex, hundreds and hundreds of Google Employees came out to form a huge welcoming committee for the passing camera car.

There’s loads of things to see, as many employees have clearly prepared for the event! For example, here’s a life-size yellow Street View guy:

Elsewhere, in a clear nod to our very own discovery of a fight on Street View, a couple of Googlers are engaged in a slight altercation.

In another self-referential move, a couple of people are taking part in a tiny Tour-de-France!

The in-jokes don’t stop there either - one Googler took the opportunity to make a “Web 2.0? marriage proposal! See his website to find out if she accepted.

There’s tons more silliness all up and down the street, as it seems the entire Googleplex came out for the event - so have a browse and share your best finds in the comments!

Thanks to GmapsMania.

Locations: California / Categories: Street Views

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Google decided to take some new Street View images at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. This time they must have let the employees know, as there are many Googlers lining the street. They must have given advance warning, because some people came prepared.

One Googler named Michael Weiss-Malik, a member of the Google Geo team that dos Google Maps/Earth, actually decided to make a wedding proposal in Street View. He put up a sign which you can see here:

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He also has a web site called MarryMeLeslie.com which describes why he did it, and why it’s called “2.0″. If you turn your view to the left or right, you can see the line of Googlers down the street. Move your view down the street to get a look at all the interesting things they decided to show. You can also view these with the Street View layer inside Google Earth for a more immersive experience.

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Domain

Australian property website domain.com.au have reacted quickly to the launch of street view in Australia by adding the panoramic imagery to their site functionality. The Google Map showing the location of the property and the street view appear on the property details page.

When you are looking at potential houses on-line it is useful to be able to scope out locations with street view. Not only can you get a quick preview of the property but you can take a virtual stroll around the neighbourhood.

StreetAdvisor

StreetAdvisor has also reacted quickly to the Australian launch of street view. StreetAdvisor is a community sharing website where residents can rate the streets that they live in. The site carries ratings for neighbourly attitudes, noise levels, traffic problems etc.

Now it is also possible to check out the street in Google Maps street view.

Immobilio

French real-estate search engine Immobilio is the first European site to add Google street view. So if you are looking to buy a property in France you can now view prospective properties in Google Maps street view (where available).

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• Australia, Japan get Street View: Amazing — Australia is now smothered in blue Street View lines in Google Maps — including some of the most out-of-the-way places you can imagine:

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  The Australian’s take: “Privacy advocates say Google’s gone too far,” though not, it turns out, Australia’s Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, which thinks Google’s approach is fair dinkum enough. Japan too gets some of its main cities covered. Thanks to Claudia Carvalho for the tip.

• Olym-pics not for the Chinese: Google’s recently updated satellite imagery of the brand-new Olympic stadiums in Beijing — which would provide ample opportunity for the Chinese to feel proud — is alas not available to ordinary Chinese, as inside the Great Chinese Firewall Google’s Chinese-language Ditu Maps service does not have a satellite imagery layer. Because, you know, all those domestic terrorists would never dream of using a proxy server to maps.google.com.
• OneGeology outputs to KML: It turns out that OneGeology, previously flagged on Ogle Earth but not tested due to browser limitations, outputs to KML, as Hypocentre points out Now that I’ve had access to IE7 for a bit, I can confirm that the exported view-based network link works great in Google Earth. All Points Blog also lauds the data, but comments that the site’s technical underpinnings is a bit dated. As far as I’m concerned, the KML links for the regional layers serve all my needs — it would be great to offer them as a list of options that don’t depend on a small subset of browsers or the map view — I know where Africa is:-) Oh and a KML layer with the key would make it perfect.

  

• 3DXplorer - new Java-based virtual world: Serendipitously, just a few days after Avi Bar-Zeev clarifies the difference between two different kind of “browser-based” 3D virtual worlds/globes (one kind requires a plugin be installed, the other relies on the browser’s own resources — which is a much harder feat to pull off) an avatar-driven virtual world of the second kind is announced: 3DXplorer. Tantalizingly, it supports COLLADA models of the kind made by SketchUp and found in Google 3D Warehouse. In other words, you can create your own virtual worlds on your own website, populate it with existing 3D content, and let anyone with a free 3DXplorer account visit. That could well be a winning formula, with a free hosting option for low-traffic sites and paid options that are competitive with Second Life, depending on usage patterns. It runs in java 1.6, which alas Apple has been tardy shipping as a default with OS X (it’s still at 1.5). The main constraint, I suspect: It doesn’t look as slick as Second Life.
• Mapufacture + GeoCommons: Geoweb pioneer Mapufacture, with its early support for syndicated georeferenced content via GeoRSS, is being acquired by FortiusOne, which is democratizing access to complex GIS databases via its GeoCommons platform. As Mapufacture’s Mikel Maron, Andrew Turner and FortiusOne’s Sean Gorman explain it, the two services are complementary and hence a perfect fit — Sean Gorman:
  

  The long term vision has been to eventually fuse the personal and dynamic data of the GeoWeb (long tail) [Mapufacture] with the static and statistical data of GIS (short tail) [Geocommons].

  I think it’s wonderful that there is consolidation afoot among the social geoentrepreneurs — there are some very big fish in the geospatial pond.

• Earthmine update: O’Reilly Radar updates us on progress with Earthmine, which is working on an API to integrate its “Street View on steroids” into third party web sites. Don’t know about Earthmine yet? You need to check out this video.
• Landsat to go free: Announced today: 35 years of archived Landsat imagery will be made freely available on the web by the end of 2008. The U.S. Geological Survey will be hosting the data, which is good news — the USGS is an enthusiastic adopter of KML for many of its other projects. Depending on how comprehensively this dataset is integrated with Google Earth et. al., we’ll soon be able to browse the Earth in time as well as in space.

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After a huge roll out of street view in Australia and Japan today Google have also announced street view imagery for more than 30 US cities. The new cities include New Orleans (LA), Baton Rouge (LA), El Paso (TX), Wichita (KS), Savannah (GA), and Colorado Springs (CO).

The Google LatLong Blog also says that “to give you even more of a reason to explore Street View, we’ve hidden a special surprise somewhere in our US imagery so keep your eyes peeled as you take in the views!”

Here are Some Interesting Street Views

Ramsay Street (from the Australian soap Neighbours)
Surfer’s Paradise, Sydney, Australia
The Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia
New Orleans French Quarter and St Louis Cathedral
Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Also Check Out These Street View Galleries

• Streetviewr
• Street View Fun
• Street View Gallery
• Street Viewer Gallery

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