Google Earth Street View,

[TB Roye]

Just found out that our house and many of our family and friends are now in Google Earth, Street View. The is a picture of our house with my truck in the driveway. Can't see the address but it comes up when you click on the camera in picture. What do you think of it? Wife is against it and I have mixed feeling as I think it will be used for some type of advertising. My Son in Idaho house is on it and I see where they are starting to do it in Great Britian. The picture of my house was on a Monday morning in the Fall. Garbage and Recycle cans are at the curb and the grass clipping pile is on the side of street. I know it was last fall as my neighors house looked like crap and looks worse now and I had just painted the house late last summer.

Tom

[stormdog74]

I am of two minds on this. I like the idea for finding businesses and such in new areas, but I am not sure how I feel about residential areas. I found my house and it is both sort of cool and sort of creepy at the same time. I guess that we have to get used to having less and less privacy - there are cameras almost everywhere as it is, but outside our homes???

What we really need to worry about is if someday they have this available live - I don't think I would like to have someone watching me come and go, go out for the mail, etc.

[Black wallnut]

I think it is kewl. From what I have seen it shows the same views that one would see walking down a sidewalk. Seems kinda hard to be against that. However there has been at least one law suit because of pictures taken along a private drive that was posted No Trespassing. In this case there are a few fine details that I do not have that will be pivotal.

[Alex Franke]

Yeah, we're on it, too. I like it -- think it's a great way to inspect your roof and gutters without risking a bad fall.

They actually got a shot of a neighbor walking his dog, too. And there are websites springing up with "streetview sightings" as well -- everything from apparent break-ins in progress to celebrities.

I just make sure I'm never picking my nose while driving by a car with a tripod strapped on the top.

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[LCHIEN]

i saw my street and house for the first time a few days ago. Its neat technology, thank goodness its not real time although for other locations you wish it were.

In a way its creepy. OTOH as someone said, its just the same view as they would get driving down your street which is a public right of way.

I'm trying to think of ways this could be used against you.


I wonder if they get inside gated communities.....
Apparently not - the gated communities near me are not street-view capable.

[Uncle Cracker]

I've used it and I like it, as it is just sometimes too difficult to see street numbers at speed when you are looking for someplace you have not been. However, I did find out that it is not always spot on, particularly on a street where addresses have any oddity in their numbering convention, such as one side of the street having higher numbers than the other, or numbers with gaps.

[docrowan]

Just went and looked up my old house. Kind of cool. New homeowners enclosed the carport - good for them!

I couldn't find my new house, but we live in a very small town.

[Alex Franke]

Here's another thing that's it's good for: Recently I was trying to remember the name of a coffee shop in town so I could tell a friend where to meet -- kind of an old German-style storefront, about halfway down the block from the Starbucks. Gosh what's the name... uh... let's ask Google! Well, we couldn't make out the name but he knew exactly what to look for when he got there: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...,0.005863&z=18

When you click "Link to this Page" in Google maps, the link you get includes your current streetview view. Pretty cool.

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[crokett]

I am not sure if it is cool or scary - my house is on Streetview too.

I had a similar situation to Alex's but I was able to work out a business name I couldn't remember the name of. I knew the approximate address, so used Streetview to search along the road until I found the name of the business.

[Tom Slick]

There is nothing within 100 miles of my house. I did find that Sequoia National Park is on Street View. That's kind of neat.

[twistsol]

I just looked up my house. Since my driveway is about 1/2 mile long, you can see two white dots that are my garage doors if you know where to look. The rest of the house blends into the woods.

[iceman61]

While looking up my house a when it 1st came out, I noticed that my neighbor's house hadn't been finished yet. That dated the aerial photo by 9-10 years, & that was a couple of years ago.

[billwmeyer]

Weir hasn't made it to the big leagues yet. I get a distant view, mainly of trees. I can hardly see the street.

I guess I think it is cool too, but have some doubts about it too.

Bill

[L. D. Jeffries]

Went to the site recently to see what or if our old house was still there and how it looked. Moved from Boise to the east coast 13 years ago; I had planted small evergreen shrubs along the front sidewalk a couple of years before we sold and moved. Was really surprised when the street-view came up..the shrubs were now about 10 feet tall but the place looked about the same. Interesting site!

[sparkeyjames]

Wouldn't you know that when they took my house's picture it was garbage day and the can and recycle bin are out front. Good going google. At least the lawn was cut.