Google Street View is in RVA!

It’s official! Google has entered Richmond, VA and almost the entire city has been mapped for Street View. I took a quick tour of my neighborhood and boy was that weird! I am really excited about this service. Think about it… Need to go somewhere in the city you have never been, check it on Street View and you will have already been there when you go for the first time. Going to an unfamiliar city? Figure out where you will be going to and use Street View to get familiar with the territory before you get there.

Ha, I just looked and Ashland, which is where I work, has been partially mapped too. I was able to see the building I work in. Freaking awesome!

One of the cameras they use…

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One of the car types they use… Not fancy, but functional…. Kinda like Google I guess..

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This does create a massive opportunity for goofy images though and guess what, there’s a website for that!

http://www.gstreetsightings.com/

I even noticed something funny in my neighborhood… There’s a guy that is always driving around in his big, lifted, diesel Ford truck and as it turns out, Google passed him on the road while mapping the hood. His truck and his shoulder will forever be preserved thanks to Google…

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Oh, and they got some neighborhood kid walking to the bus stop or something. Pretty funny indeed.

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Thanks Google! Though Street View is a bit creepy, in a “Big Brother” kind of way, but I think the good outweighs the embarrassing potential…. I Think…

-Kamen

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 3:15 am and is filed under Awesome, Community, Geekish, Google, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Google Street View is in RVA!”

Mohr or Less » Hello, Richmond! You’re on Google Maps! March 28th, 2008 at 8:45 am

[...] to various sources around the RVA blogosphere and here, Google Maps has added street view throughout the RVA metropolitan area.  I was curious about it [...]

Near West End News » Google Street View is Alive and Well - Richmond, Virginia March 28th, 2008 at 11:20 am

[...] RVA blogosphere (here, here, here, here, etc.) has reported that Google Street View is now live throughout the metropolitan area. I [...]

Trevor Dickerson March 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Freaking AWESOME!!! A little creepy, and more evidence Google will one day dominate the world, but how awesome!

Harry March 28th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

It is a strange and disorienting experience to take the virtual version that follows one of the routes I take from office to house each day. The West Broad and North Robinson Street stretches seem to have been photographed toward dusk.

I don’t see many people out on the sidewalks. I register this when I’m enjoying my pedestrian pleasures, I guess, how I can pass several blocks and not see any one enjoying the bloom of spring on the bosky Fan streets. But using this Google Maps view, I’m reminded of that “Omega Man” film with Heston, or maybe “28 Days Later.” Weird.

A bicyclist here on Robinson, a woman talking on her cell phone near Floyd and Robinson, and on the street where I live, nary a soul stirring. Spooky. Where did all the people go?

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