
Go back in time with Street View - ruchir_21hj
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/go-back-in-time-with-street-view.html
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sutterbomb
It's frustrating to see feature announcements for features that aren't live
yet - especially when they aren't framed as a "coming soon" feature.

If you're doing a slow roll-out, or announcing an upcoming feature, be
explicit about that. Without setting expectations, you've completely lost the
point of announcing. I won't just remember to check back later, and I won't
share the news with anyone else since there's nothing to see.

~~~
hamburglar
Agreed. Google does this to me regularly. "Hooray, you can X" and then I spend
a while poking around, trying to do X, before eventually realizing they've
probably punked me again and giving up.

I don't understand why they do it. Instead of being amused by their new
feature, I'm annoyed that they've wasted my time again.

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kingnight
I'm surprised they went forward with the fullscreen Google Maps experience. I
can't believe how awful the performance is. I can't count how many times I've
followed a link, including ones off this blog post, where the map will hang
(on some js query I'm assuming) and won't respond to user input or do anything
until the page is reloaded.

I also can't believe how tricky the UI is. Finding directions from one place
to another is unbelievably difficult.

The only thing I can think of is that their desktop usage has just plummeted
so they decided to go out the door with experimental features up to wazoo for
the tinkerers who love to waste time exploring the map.

~~~
finch_
Maybe these are personal problems? I use Google Maps on the web all the time,
and have never seen it hang.

As for finding directions: there's a search box, you type in an address, hit
the 'directions' button that pops up, and enter another address. I literally
can't think of a way to make this simpler.

~~~
kingnight
It could definitely be an issue with network speed. I don't have the greatest
connection, sure, but I think 10mb/s should be able to handle it.

I understand how the directions work and I agree it's super simple, but the
intended UX and what I actually experience is different. The contextual search
box doesn't consistently change in relation to what I'm clicking on so that I
cannot click / type / directions as I know I'm supposed to.

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Theodores
This is a truly exciting gift from our friends in the GooglePlex.

I guess that Microsoft, Apple and others in the mapping game must be
disappointed by this announcement. This back-in-time feature is not
necessarily 'must have' but it certainly is something that a lot of people are
going to like. It also makes Google the only choice for the serious 'maps
user'.

Personally I envy those born in the last few years. When they get to my age
they will be able to explore the streets they grew up in rather than rely on
hazy black and white memories.

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will_brown
This is similar, but maybe even cooler than Google Earth's time slide. I hope
one day Google gives users the ability to filter Google News and Google search
results by date.

One of my side projects is location based video sharing using the Google Map
API. One of the first things I incorporated was a video search/filter by
time/date. See:
[http://112.196.33.85/solitaire/demo/will_brown_new/login.php](http://112.196.33.85/solitaire/demo/will_brown_new/login.php)

~~~
dragonwriter
> I hope one day Google gives users the ability to filter Google News and
> Google search results by date.

Haven't those options been in "search tools" for a long time (starting back
when the search tools were more prominent), and in advanced options even
before that?

~~~
will_brown
Google News allows search by date, but unless there is an option I am unaware
of it is capped at the last 30 days. Also, I think the filter is based on the
date something was crawled, which is not necessarily the date of publication.

Edit: I can set the range past 30 days, the actual function is a little tricky
for older articles because again I believe it is based on crawl date not
publication date. Example I set date 1939-1944 and search "World War 2", no
results.

~~~
_delirium
They actually used to have a more full-featured date search in Google News,
but it was temporarily discontinued in December:
[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/news/Gl23RwnTIl...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/news/Gl23RwnTIlg/aAGakhzIe_cJ)

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rwhitman
I've been waiting for this feature to come about. I have to admit I've often
taken a spin around street view in urban areas where there was major upheaval
(devastation, rapid gentrification) and zoomed up and down streets hoping to
get a glimpse of before / after street view photos. Pretty exciting to have it
become featurized

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mnw21cam
Doesn't seem to be active yet. Will be interesting when it is.

~~~
crazygringo
Indeed. No clock icon for me on the links they provide, even in Chrome.

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mimighost
It kinda remind me of the old Google that before Larry Page takes over: offers
that may be not profitable in its nature but interesting and really enlighten
your imagination.

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iscrewyou
Prime example of what you call having an upper hand.

Great on Google for providing this. Its not really a Maps application anymore.
Its an archive.

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spingsprong
Extremely poor performance for me at the moment. The update rate is so slow as
to be virtually unusable.

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guard-of-terra
Naver had this for some time now for Seoul street view.

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alanlewis
"This device isn't a spaceship... it's a time machine."

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sneak
Google Street View already lets me go back in time to a time when Flash was
required to use the web...

~~~
crazygringo
You're wrong, Street View doesn't use Flash.

(At least not on modern browsers, I can't speak as to whether or not there's a
flash fallback for older browsers.)

