Google Maps Cool New Street View Feature
Jim Reppond on 05 30, 2007
[Editor's Note: I first met Jim Reppond when he moderated the MIT Real Estate Forum (remember that?) when the MIT Alumni Association brought together people from Zillow, Redfin, HouseValues and a prominent local broker, to talk about the future of real estate... It was a fascinating evening that was followed up by some great conversations. When I started researching the characteristics of a successful real estate site in Seattle, Jim's Seattle Real Estate site came up again and again. His team has obviously put a lot of thought and work into maintaining a strong web presence which makes it all the more special that I get to introduce Jim as a contributor to Rain City Guide.]
Google Maps has just released a very cool new feature that lets you actually look around the street. It’s only working in major cities for right now. (New York, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami) But I’m sure they plan to expand this to other major metropolitan cites nationwide soon.
[photopress:Google_StreetView.jpg,thumb,alignright]
This will be a very handy tool for those relocating or looking at real estate online to get a feel for the neighborhood and traffic virtually. What’s next? Real-time video of very corner of the planet?
FYI: You need the newest FlashPlayer 9.0 to view this, but it’s worth the time to update just for this! Click-n-drag on the picture for a virtual 360 and you and actually go up and down the streets by clicking on the arrows – big WOW factor. Any place there is a blue line can be seen.
Applications for this seem endless.
About the Author: Jim Reppond
- Author's website: http://www.TheSeattleSpecialist.com
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11 Responses to “Google Maps Cool New Street View Feature”
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[...] Google has rolled out a new street level view to their Google Maps system. It actually lets you take a look around at street level so that you can see a sort of 3D view of a specific area. They have only photographed New York, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami but I’m sure more cities will be done soon. Check it out here. You can zoom around on the image, push it left and right as well as navigate down the street. What’s next? Live video from every street corner? More here, here, here and here. [...]
FYI – the link to Jim’s site is broken.
Drew: Is it still not working for you? It appears to work for me…
I would like the Street View feature better, if I could get the little yellow man to stop walking down the STREET, and get on the pavement. I walked all over Miami Beach Florida with him and all I saw was a bunch of blacktop with yellow lines down the middle. We couldn’t make it over to the beach. I wanted to see the ocean, not the traffic lights.
I am definitely going to blog about that on my site http://jason.landbrokr.com
Google is on the cutting edge of map technology. Remember when mapquest was the top dog?
This reminds me of when I saw a 1998 Will Smith movie called Enemy of the State where he was being watched via satellite. That seemed so far off and now it seems so close. What will we be reading about next month, real time video cams mashed with google maps?
You know, before I hit “post” I thought I’d better go check to see if that’s already happening and it is.
Okay, so how about if there could be a google map/real time video of….traffic, or available parking on a street that I’m approaching, or of a restaurant so I can see if the line is out the door, or….of the growing line at the My Chemical Romance concert so I know when to head on down to Sea and get in line with the kids. Will we all be on video and mapped someday?
Jim,
Welcome! Very cool feature for sure. One of my brothers lives out in the vicinity of NYC so I’ll definitely have to illuminate him on this Google feature. Thanks! Google needs to add Seattle to the list!
[...] Google has rolled out a new street level view to their Google Maps system. It actually lets you take a look around at street level so that you can see a sort of 3D view of a specific area. They have only photographed New York, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami but I’m sure more cities will be done soon. Check it out here. You can zoom around on the image, push it left and right as well as navigate down the street. What’s next? Live video from every street corner? More here, here, here and here. [...]
[...] Meanwhile, Back In Redmond… May 30, 2007 Yesterday, Google Maps introduced Street View Maps for 5 major cities (alas, Seattle wasn’t one of them). The implementation of the Street View feature rocks even though the image quality isn’t as good as it could be. Jim and Galen have already blogged about the new release, so I’ll avoid repeating what they’ve already said. [...]
The Possibilities are really endless. Everyone it seems loves maps and videos.
[...] added several cities and countries to Street View including Seattle.We’ve been waiting since Street View debuted in May of 2007. Everyone wondered why Google would not put Seattle at the top of the list since we are one of the [...]