
Google streetview world coverage - lelf
http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/streetview_landing/streetview-map.html
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kirchhoff
I run a couple of Street View based sites. Here are a few interesting and
lesser known places which they've covered:

Wieliczka Salt Mine:
[http://www.instantstreetview.com/2n9vv9z3sayesz1uyzp0z2u](http://www.instantstreetview.com/2n9vv9z3sayesz1uyzp0z2u)

Battleship Island:
[http://www.instantstreetview.com/2bp3k8z5ve6kiz4bvzs4z2u](http://www.instantstreetview.com/2bp3k8z5ve6kiz4bvzs4z2u)

Lava cave in Japan:
[http://www.instantstreetview.com/2dcp2cz5x7dgmz15jzohz2u](http://www.instantstreetview.com/2dcp2cz5x7dgmz15jzohz2u)

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Theodores
Once upon a time maps cost a lot of money and were a government thing - you
had to licence the data.

What Google have done by driving everywhere is to create their own maps. They
don't need to license data from anyone, they own their own maps and the
underlying data is in a format they can make sense of unlike the many other
formats that went with old-style GIS.

They have also been running that CAPTCHA to get people to decipher street and
other signs for their maps.

In previous times maps were closely guarded secrets - because knowledge is
power. Although Google have made quality (well, amazing) maps available to
anyone with a computer, they have also taken ownership of maps and mapping.
There have been no complaints of unfair practices from rival mapping concerns,
they have not 'done a Microsoft' on their rivals. They simply offer a better
product.

Whomever it was at Google that had the vision to do maps - and create their
own map data - was very clever. Mapping the whole world their way - with
Street View - may seem insane, but, there is a lot of power in owning the
copyright to the world's maps. By analogy, with music the money is in song
writing rather than performing.

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cloudwalking
> Whomever it was at Google that had the vision to do maps - and create their
> own map data - was very clever.

That would be Brian McClendon. He co-founded Keyhole, now known as Google
Maps.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_McClendon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_McClendon)

~~~
jpatokal
No contest about Brian's role, but Keyhole is Google Earth. Maps is based on
another acquisition, Where 2 Technologies.

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ChrisNorstrom
Please tell me I'm not the only one that goes on "Google Maps Vacations". I've
been doing this for years, I pick a place and head into street view and start
exploring for hours at a time. Literally sometimes 5-7 hours non stop. I seem
to favor little towns above big cities. I feel like I'm discovering something
secret that few people know about.

Italy, Spain, Greece, Scandinavia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Mexico. I love it
all.

My bucket list dream is that one day Google turns their 2D maps into
explorable 3D worlds. If I'm around by then, and I'm retired, that is where I
will be aaaaaaaaall day.

~~~
DonGateley
Me too since I found Oculus Street View for my Rift.

    
    
      http://oculusstreetview.eu.pn
    

It's a pretty amazing experience. This map will be very, very useful.

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javindo
Surprised Germany is so resistant, although I suppose there was that WiFi SSID
collection scandal which caused tension.

~~~
sibbl
As a German, I guess 90% of us would love to have a complete Street View
coverage...

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kleiba
But maybe other Germans would guess a different percentage?

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jessriedel
Not necessarily. With the German privacy protection laws, it sounds like just
1% of the population could easily cause enough grief to make mapping
prohibitively expensive. According to this

[http://searchengineland.com/google-has-stopped-street-
view-p...](http://searchengineland.com/google-has-stopped-street-view-
photography-germany-72368)

250k homes and businesses requested to have their property blurred out, which
is indeed much less than 1% of the population.

~~~
nadaviv
A tiny fraction of those who would oppose having their property shown on
street view would be aware of it and take the time to do anything about it. So
250k people is quite a lot, and probably means a much larger percent of the
population are bothered by it.

~~~
omnibrain
Nah, there was a huge media campaign against Street View. It was used by
polititian to gain some "we care for you" profile and was mainly driven by the
media companies that have a strong anti google stance in germany mainly
because they want a part of Google's profits.

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minikomi
Recently our whole office spent quite a bit of time enthralled with the
amateur photospheres on google views. Some are really good at capturing lesser
known slices of life in a very effective manner (in japan we particularly
liked Masato Ota
[https://www.google.com/maps/views/view/113583807829738829819...](https://www.google.com/maps/views/view/113583807829738829819/photo/R_md1Sg3NOwAAAQJOJVB1Q?gl=us&heading=283&pitch=39&fovy=75)
)

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AlexanderDhoore
Very important when your playing GeoGuessr!

[http://geoguessr.com/](http://geoguessr.com/)

~~~
skybrian
Or perhaps maptag?
[http://playmaptag.appspot.com/](http://playmaptag.appspot.com/)

Disclaimer: created by a friend.

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davidw
Henderson Island:
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pitcairn+Islands&hl=en&ll=-24...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Pitcairn+Islands&hl=en&ll=-24.338807,-128.333702&spn=0.14139,0.264187&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=61.799062,135.263672&oq=pitcair&hnear=Pitcairn+Islands&t=m&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-24.338795,-128.333788&panoid=2DwW-v4bnvWHHzMIFczfpA&cbp=12,100,,0,0)

[https://maps.google.com/?ll=28.188244,-126.650391&spn=34.626...](https://maps.google.com/?ll=28.188244,-126.650391&spn=34.626733,67.631836&t=m&z=5&layer=c&cbll=28.198379,-177.384779&panoid=nmHQpXEL8zXU8IooxHD2Yg&cbp=12,225,,0,0)
\- Midway Island

Pretty much as far north as you can drive in Europe:
[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=B%C3%B8rnesveien+17,+9763+Ska...](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=B%C3%B8rnesveien+17,+9763+Skarsv%C3%A5g,+Nordkapp,+Finnmark,+Norway&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=71.169256,25.782852&spn=0.100177,0.528374&sll=37.09024,-95.712891&sspn=61.799062,135.263672&geocode=FckbPQQdYimKAQ&hnear=B%C3%B8rnesveien+17,+9763+Skarsv%C3%A5g,+Nordkapp,+Finnmark,+Norway&t=m&z=12&layer=c&cbll=71.169316,25.783038&panoid=rviRGiWfzlUg4hWKgXL8HA&cbp=12,35,,0,0)

I love Street View!

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ucarion
In case anyone is curious, Henderson Island
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Island_(Pitcairn_Isla...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Island_\(Pitcairn_Islands\)))
is perhaps best known as the remote island where some of the survivors of the
whaleship Essex arrived after their boat was rammed by a sperm whale. The
story of the Essex is the inspiration for Melville's Moby-Dick.

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kibwen
What is it about Thailand that causes it to be so thoroughly mapped compared
to every other country in the region?

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maxerickson
It's substantially wealthier (using per capita GDP). I wouldn't be surprised
if it just has more and better roads (making it easier and, sort of, more
interesting to map).

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lostlogin
It may be my cynicism, but isn't a wealthy country more likely to have screen
on which adverts can be viewed? Does the mapping relate more to this?

~~~
maxerickson
I don't think it is cynicism to expect a business to choose better markets. I
do think the whole Streetview thing is forward looking enough that the
immediate economics are not the only thing they consider.

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sn0v
This is a pretty interesting (albeit lengthy) read for anyone who missed it -
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/magazine/googles-plan-
for-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/magazine/googles-plan-for-global-
domination-dont-ask-why-ask-where.html?_r=0)

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dmd
I just wish there were a better interface for actually exploring more than a
single frame at a time of Street View. Like [http://www.gaiagi.com/driving-
simulator/](http://www.gaiagi.com/driving-simulator/) but more so.

~~~
magicalist
If you go into Street View in Google Earth (I just zoom in until it kicks me
into street view, don't know if there's a better way to enter it) you get full
WASD control and it displays it on (pretty crude) geometry so the transition
from frame to frame is continuous (and you can even deviate from the path in
the street, though it gets more distorted the more you deviate from the actual
car path).

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gaving
Captivating.
[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/preview#!data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-...](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/preview#!data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-130.119634!3d-25.064818!2m2!1f23.84!2f89.6!4f75!2m11!1e1!2m5!1sSL8lTWwcQWzUSDWiI32izQ!2e0!7e5!9m1!6sPitcairn+Island!5m3!1sSL8lTWwcQWzUSDWiI32izQ!2e0!3e5&fid=5)

[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/preview#!data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-...](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/preview#!data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-130.108249!3d-25.064196!2m2!1f142.02!2f76.04!4f75!2m12!1e1!2m6!1sXKJnwsX63fmi3oYkDLx2uQ!2e0!5sSouth+Pacific+Ocean!7e5!9m1!6sPitcairn+Island!5m3!1sXKJnwsX63fmi3oYkDLx2uQ!2e0!3e5&fid=5)

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kepano
These guys are crowd-sourcing street views in a way that could someday
complement OpenStreetMap: [http://mapillary.com/](http://mapillary.com/)

~~~
teddyh
Only if you have an iPhone.

~~~
natch
I'm able to view the pictures just fine using a desktop web browser.

I guess you mean the pictures are taken by iPhones.

~~~
teddyh
Yes. The point of being like OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps is the way
the maps are not read-only, but that anyone can contribute. And for Mapillary,
this is not true unless you have an iPhone.

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D9u
Still no Street View for (Hawai'i, island, county, & state) my area, but I see
that some of the unpaved secondary (private subdivision) roads are now covered
by Street View.

We saw one of the Google cars on Highway 19, in Kurtistown, about 5 years ago.
We held our beers out the window of the truck and waved at them but I never
saw us on Street View...

We probably got edited out, which is, I guess, a good thing since it's against
the law to have open containers of alcoholic beverages on the roadway here.

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dylandrop
Out of curiosity, why is none of northern Africa mapped? I'm even more
surprised none of Turkey is mapped... they even have positions there [1], so
I'm guessing it's not an opposition to Google by the government.

[1]
[http://www.google.com/about/jobs/locations/istanbul/](http://www.google.com/about/jobs/locations/istanbul/)

~~~
egeozcan
Especially in Istanbul, I guess it would be hard because

1) Roads change all the time, tunnels are built, huge sections of the city
gets randomly closed to traffic permanently and so...

2) Istanbul doesn't have a proper road/street system but something which
rather seems to be some paths randomly crossing and a lot of houses built in
the smallest possible remaining land. It's also generally not clear which
roads are public and private.

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blntechie
I wish they do street view for India. If I recall correctly, they started it
in Bangalore but had to shutdown because of local law.

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suhastech
According to the map here, they do have some Indian cities in blue.

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blntechie
All are private buildings and properties. Like IITs, Amusement Parks etc.

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brianbreslin
Anyone know why argentina, paraguay, and bolivia have no coverage? Have the
governments blocked it? super rural/remote stretches of brazilian highway in
the amazon are covered. I mean I doubt there is much demand, but argentina
should have higher demand (40 million people)

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DanBC
I wonder if Google is going to get around to doing Canal view and river view?
(I know they've done some, but it'd be good to have everything).

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iraq

      National Museum of Iraq
      Baghdad, Iraq

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frik
Central Europe, except Austria, Slovenia (and most of Germany) - I love it

~~~
MatthiasP
Seems like most of the Holy Roman Empire doesn't want to be streetviewed.

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jerogarcia
i saw the google cars in Buenos Aires argentina some months ago.

