Google-Mapped, part two
Matt sent me an LA Times article this morning which confirms that Google has been busy adding Street View to Los Angeles.
My earlier suspicion that I’d been van-captured has proven true. So far, my mug doesn’t show up in any of the shots, but that’s likely because they seem to have only commercial streets included in the database. Kinda hoping that continues.
One thing I’ve noticed so far: at least along my stretch of Wilshire, the images are a block-and-half off. Here’s our old editorial office. In the image, you can see the intersection is Plymouth, but the map shows it between Windsor and Lorraine.
Articles
August 7th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I’ll let TeleAtlas know about the misalignment. However, they’re about to be purchaed by Tom Tom. Whoops. Always a bigger fish.
August 7th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Yes, my old house in San Francisco is off about a half street as well. Still, how cool would it be to see your doe in the headlights look on Google? A tad bizarre, but serendipitous.
August 7th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I’ve been looking for real estate, and it’s off here in Chicago too. Big bummer when you think you’re going to go look at a corner unit and it’s one in the middle.
When I Google-mapped my house, we have a furniture set on our roof-deck I’ve never seen in my life. Um…is it possible the map is over 4 years old and it’s the previous owners set? I thought Google was on the cutting edge!
August 7th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Christina: It depends on what company originally took the picture. In the past, different mapping companies took the imagery, and places like GDT, TeleAtlas, NavTeq, etc would by the imagery from them (which isn’t always satellite imagery — often it’s high-altitude aircraft photography). Rarely do these companies take their own imagery. So if the state hasn’t done a survey, or a company hasn’t flown over in years, the imagery is going to be that old.
My art school has been demolished in the last year, but according to Google, it’s still there. The copyright on the imagery is the State of New Jersey, which means New Jersey itself took those images, and most likely hasn’t flown over again since. At the same time, my town used to be a big black hole on GIS imagery because Vermont didn’t allow that kind of image taken of certain parts of the state. They’ve since changed their minds, and now my town is visible to Google/Terraserver/whatever.
When they have new stuff available, they’ll update it. Maybe not accurately positioned at first (ack) but they’ll get it.