We Want New Street View

Update Google Street View in New Orleans! is a campaign to encourage Google to update the Street View imagery in New Orleans.

The Google Street View car visited New Orleans in 2007, just two years after the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. The Street View imagery on Google Maps helps to document the neighborhoods that were flattened by the floodwaters that broke the levees.

'Update Google Street View in New Orleans!' believe that the imagery, now five years old, is "out of date in a city that is continuously changing, demolishing, and rebuilding". The blog has published a series of photographs around New Orleans and are comparing them to the Street View imagery of the same locations to highlight how the city is being rebuilt.

I've used the photographs taken by Annalisa Kelly and Hunter King for the blog and created a little Street View App. The app lets you view the photographs superimposed on top of the Street View image. You can use the slide control to adjust the opacity of the new photographs to compare it with the Street View underneath.

When Zombies Attack on Street View

Here is yet another promotional Street View animation campaign - this time involving zombies.

Confused.com, the UK's most popular price comparison service, has launched a new video creation application called Home Sweet Zombie.

If you enter your address into Home Sweet Zombie then the application creates an animated video that shows zombies taking over your street using Google Maps Street View. Once you have created your own personalised video you can share it with friends via Twitter and Facebook.

Fly Down Your Street with Street View

In the UK British Airways are running a TV advertising campaign, 'London Calling' (YouTube link), in which a plane drives through the streets of London, passing a number of iconic landmarks on its way. The tag-line of the campaign is 'Don't Fly - Support GB'.

British Airways has also created a clever Facebook application in which users can personalise the advert by including scenes involving their own homes. To create your own advert you just need to enter a UK address (non UK residents try the postcode 'RH10 5LS').

After you enter an address the advert includes some additional scenes in which the plane travels down your street and your house can be seen through the plane's window. 

Hawaii on Street View

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Big Island

Google Maps has extended its Street View coverage in Hawaii.

A good place to start exploring the best Street View images on Hawaii’s six major islands is in the Scenic Hawaii collection in the Street View gallery.

It also looks like Google has added a lot more Street View imagery in the Czech Republic.

Via: Google Lat Long

Park a Jeep with Google Street View

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a Jeep parked on your front drive? Thanks to Google Maps Street View and Jeep - The Ultimate Search Engine you can create a virtual snapshot of your house with a Jeep Grand Cherokee parked outside.

To create your own virtual snapshot just enter your address into the Jeep - Ultimate Search Engine. You can then view an animation of a Jeep falling through the sky (using Google Maps satellite view) onto your street.

After the Street View of your house loads you can drag and position the Jeep anywhere in the Street View image. You can rotate the Jeep in 3d, adjust its scale and even choose what color of Jeep you desire.

If you are Australian you could even win a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Every photo created with the application, between 16th May 2012 and 4th July 2012, will be entered into a draw to win a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo.

The European Championships on Street View

Today the UEFA European Football Championship starts. You can visit all eight stadiums, in the host nations of Poland and Ukraine, with Google Maps Street View.

The opening game of the tournament sees one of the host nations, Poland take on Greece at the National Stadium, Warsaw.


The final of the tournament will be held at the NSC Olimpiyskiy (Olympic Stadium) in Kyiv:


The other stadia to be explored in Ukraine are the Donbass Arena, in Donetsk, the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv and the Arena Lviv. In Poland you can also visit the stadia in Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw.

Modern Land Art on Google Maps

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is currently holding an exhibition on Land art, "capturing the simultaneous impulse emergent in the 1960s to use the earth as an artistic medium and to locate works in remote sites far from familiar art contexts". The exhibition runs until September 3rd.

Even if you can't get to MOCA to view the exhibition then you can still view an accompanying interactive application that maps key artworks in the exhibition. Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 uses Google Maps and Google Street View to pinpoint the original locations of the featured artworks.

For each artwork it is possible to view a satellite image, or a Street View image where available, of the artwork's location. It is also possible to view a photograph of the work of art in situ overlaid on top of the Google Map or Street View.

Introducing Google World Wonders

World Wonders is a new project from Google that allows you to take a virtual trip around 132 of the World's most famous historical and cultural sites. The sites includes historically important locations, such as Stonehenge and Pompeii and also natural wonders, such as the sandy dunes of Australia’s Shark Bay and the rock domes of Yosemite National Park.

Google World Wonders uses Google Maps, Google Street View and Google Earth 3d models to explore these 132 historical locations. Each location also includes YouTube videos and photographs from Getty Images. Information about each location is also provided by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Google World Wonders also includes a great Education section with downloadable resources for history and geography students and guides for primary and secondary school teachers.

Via: Google: Official Blog

Drive the Indianapolis 800 in Street View

Google has added Street View imagery for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You can use the link above to visit the track on Google Maps.

However, for those too lazy to click the forward button 200 times, I've quickly put together an animated lap of the track. Check out the animation and make sure you press the 'speed x2' button for the full racing effect.

Via: Google Lat Long

Tag Your Love with Google Maps Street View

If you can't afford to whisk the love of your life off for a romantic weekend in Paris you could try sending her a romantically tagged Street View image from the city instead. You never know it just might work.

Tag Your Love in the Streets is a nice Street View based promotional campaign by Moët & Chandon. Using the application you can select a Street View image from anywhere in the world and then add your own message. You can add text to the image and decorate the scene with a number of romantically themes images, such as flowers, hearts or a bottle of champagne.

When you have completed your message you can share it on Facebook, Twitter or directly e-mail a link to your romantic scene.

Also See

Tiffany & Co - Love is Everywhere - share your favourite romantic locations with this app from Tiffany & Co

Street View Imagined Landscapes

Today I came across this, which immediately made me think of this which in turn gave me the idea for this - Street View Art.

Essentially in this little Street View project I've embedded Street View images inside other (different) Street View images to create new imaginary landscapes. So far I've created just ten new landscapes using different Street View images from around the world.

My plan is to create more imagined landscapes when I have the time and turn the application into a slideshow, which will automatically play through each image in turn.

Google Maps at Home and at Work

Street View Now Available in Estonia and Latvia

Google have made a number of announcements concerning Google Maps today. They have officially announced the availability of Street View in the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia that Google Maps Mania reported on yesterday.

Save Home & Work Locations

Google has also added a feature to Google Maps that allows users to save home and work locations. If you go to the 'My Places' tab in Google Maps you now can save your home and work locations.

Once your locations are saved you can use 'home' or 'work' when searching for directions to quickly add those locations and avoid having to type in the full address.

New Google Places API Features

For Google Maps API users Google has added keyword search and rank by distance to the Google Places API.

The Google Places API filters places by 100 different categories, such as restaurant, clothing_store, and bar. The keyword search feature allows users to search for places based on an arbitrary text string. For example, instead of just searching for restaurants you can now search for Mexican restaurants etc.

The rank by distance feature allows map developers the option to rank searched for venues and places by distance from a set location. This means you can now offer users the choice of viewing search results both by prominence and distance.

There is a good demo map showing both keyword search and rank by distance in action here.

Polish UEFA 2012 Stadiums in Street View

The Official Polish Google Blog has announced the release of Street View for the four Polish soccer stadium to be used for this summer's UEFA European Football Championship. Now you can use Street View to get a sense of what it is like to be down on the pitch looking up at the towering stands.

Born and Raised on Google Maps

Shadow Days is an impressive Google Maps based application designed to promote John Mayer's new song Born and Raised.

Shadow Days allows you to watch an animated Street View movie of any journey within the USA. To create your own movie you just need to set a starting point and choose a destination. You can then choose to watch as the application animates through selected Street Views from your journey route or view Street View thumbnail images moving along the route on a Google Map.

As the movie plays you can listen to Mayer's new single Born and Raised.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

The Street View Social Network

Wallit uses Google Maps Street View as the interface for a unique social network. Wallit allows users to create a virtual wall on Street View anywhere in the world, that they, and other users, can then post messages on.

Users of the Wallit iPhone app can find nearby virtual walls and leave a message on the wall. Users actually have to be physically near the location of a virtual wall in order to be able to add a message. This means to leave messages you need the Wallit iPhone application.

However, if you don't own an iPhone, you can still browse the virtual walls on the Wallit website using Google Maps Street View.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

A Supercharged Google Maps Rocket Ride

Chemin Vert is a simulated rocket ride across five continents using Google Maps Street View images. It takes you on a bone shattering journey at close to a 1000 mph using Street View imagery from around the world.

There are three versions of Chemin Vert, one in normal resolution, a high resolution version and lastly a Vimeo video. To view either of the first two versions you need a browser that supports WebGL (such as Chrome). After either of the first two versions load you just need to sit back as Chemin Vert animates through thousands of Street View images, taking you on a virtual journey across five different continents.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

Street View Arrives in Israel

Wailing Wall

Street View imagery is now available on Google Maps in Israel. The imagery is available in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv and also in a few universities and museums dotted around the country.

If you haven't got time to check out all the new Israeli Street View you can cheat by taking a quick tour of Mini Israel, a miniature park located near Latrun, Israel in the Ayalon Valley, which also now has Street View imagery.


Church of Gethsemane

A number of cities in Ukraine also now have Street View (I think these are new). The cities include Kiev, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odessa and L'viv.


Annunciation Cathedral, Kharkiv

Rain Forest Street View Out Now

Google has today released amazing Street View imagery of the Amazon River in Brazil.

The new Street View imagery includes the the Rio Negro and some Amazon forests. A good place to start exploring the new imagery is in this Amazon Street View Gallery.



As well as the new Amazon Street View Google has also released Street View imagery for the major towns in Poland.

Via: Google Lat Long

Tour the White House with Street View

The Blue Room

Google Maps has released Street View imagery for the White House. Now in Google Maps you can take a virtual interactive tour of the official residence of the President of the United States.

Here are some quick links to take you to specific rooms:

The State Floor

Entrance Hall
The Entrance Hall (also called the Grand Foyer) is the primary and formal entrance to the White House.

The East Room
The East Room is the largest room in the White House. The picture to the right of the yellow curtains is the White House's oldest possession, the Lansdowne portrait depicting George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1797.

The Blue Room
The Blue Room is used for receptions, receiving lines, and is occasionally set for small dinners.

The Red Room
The Red Room has served as a parlor and music room, and recent presidents have held small dinner parties in it. The Madisons, Lincolns, Grants, and Kennedys all used the Red Room as a music room. A guitar, piano and music stands were kept in the room. Today a music stand beside the fireplace recalls that earlier use of the room.

The Green Room
The Green Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House. It is used for small receptions and teas. During a state dinner, guests are served cocktails in the three state parlors before the president, first lady, and visiting head of state descend the Grand Staircase for dinner.

The State Dining Room
The State Dining Room is the larger of the two dining rooms on the State Floor of the White House.


The East Room

The Ground Floor

The China Room
The White House's collection of state china is displayed in the China Room. The collection ranges from George Washington's Chinese export china to Bill Clinton's ivory, yellow, and burnished gold china. The room is primarily used by the first lady for teas, meetings, and smaller receptions.

The Vermeil Room
The Vermeil Room houses a collection of silver-gilt or vermeil tableware, a 1956 bequest to the White House by Margaret Thompson Biddle. Portraits of American First Ladies also hang in the room.

The Library
The Library is used for teas and meetings by the President and First Lady. John Adams, the first President to live in the White House, used this room as a laundry room; at that time it was said to have been filled with "Tubs, Buckets, and a variety of Lumber."

Information for each of the rooms comes from Wikipedia.

Goofy Visits Your House in Street View

Giant Steps - Disney is a fun Google Maps based application from Disney that lets you invite a giant Goofy to your house.

Once you share your address with the application you can watch a video of a giant Goofy landing on your street (with a little help from Google Maps satellite view). Goofy then walks down your street (using Street View imagery) and actually opens the window of your house.

After you have created and watch your personalised video you can share it with the world via Facebook or Twitter.

The application obviously owes a lot to Chaos in Your Town. I wouldn't be surprised to find that they were both created by the same map developers.

Is this the New Aesthetic on Google Maps?

Floating Shiny Knot is an impressive experiment using canvas with Street View.

The application superimposes an animated shiny knot on top of any Street View image (you can choose a chrome or glass finish for the knot). This is very impressive. However if you rotate and drag the Street View around then the application soars to even higher levels of impressiveness.

To view this you will need a modern browser (try Chrome).

What is the New Aesthetic?

Hat-tip: Street View Funny