StreetView in a Pandemic

Thanks to Rob Morris for forwarding this article on the use of Google Street View to 'take us places' when we are unable to visit places at the current time, and international travel is looking unlikely for another summer. 

Google Street View may offer us a short-term escape as we perhaps explore (un)familiar places which are far away...

The New Yorker piece has some interesting ideas which would be relevant to the classroom. One person who is mentioned is Nick Nicholaou, a London-based developer, who built a site called MapCrunch ten years ago. 

I've used this for about that long in sessions with teachers and also in my teaching, and it allows for random street views, or views within a particular country or area chosen on the map. It also mentions games / challenges such as the MapCrunch Airport Game.

Google Treks..

Visit some amazing places via Google Treks.



Keep scrolling down on the various pages to uncover some great imagery....

Where are the Google Street View cars driving ?

Recognise this - have you ever seen one ?

I've seen them twice - once near Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, and once in Lowestoft.... I checked the area, but I don't appear in the images...
I'm also waiting for my street to be done again as my house, which is about 5 years old, was in the process of being constructed when the car came down the road...
This website provides some interesting detail on the way that Streetview images are created, the different vehicles that are used, and then a map showing the global coverage.
Click your country to see where the cars are currently driving...

Would be good to spend a day with one of the cars....

Historic Street View

Google is adding a historical imagery slider to Street View, so that you can see how the street has changed during the time that the imagery has been taken. This will vary in use depending on where you live, or which streets you look at, but might be interesting for charting retail change etc.

Burj Khalifa

A brand new STREET VIEW gallery of the tallest building in the world.
And an explanation of how it was created..

Google Mapping news

An interesting Guardian article about the efforts of Google to update their maps.
Some useful links here too, including this image.

Google Imagery Update

Thanks to the GA for the link to details of a major Google Street View / Maps update....

Today we’re making our Street View coverage more comprehensive than ever before by launching our biggest ever update--doubling our number of special collections and updating over 250,000 miles of roads around the world. 

We’re increasing Street View coverage in Macau, Singapore, Sweden, the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Canada. And we’re launching special collections in South Africa, Japan, Spain, France, Brazil and Mexico, among others. 

You can explore our many new places directly in Google Maps, including parks, city centers, castles and tourist attractions like Catherine Palace and Ferapontov monastery in Russia, theChiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan, or Stanley Park in Vancouver. You can even walk through the urban jungle of Singapore's Fort Canning Park, without ever leaving home. 

9 Eyes

A Google Street View project by Jon Rafman.
He has searched through the many images on Street View to identify some of the strange ones....

Google Street View has a range of wonderful images of course - for example, here's one of the greatest views in the UK...
I need to go back there this year if I can... The view from the top looking back is pretty good too...


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