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What's the point of Google Street View?
- Thread starter buccsmf1
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the practicality is not there really but its cool like google earth is to me as a time waster in a sense lol
It's very helpful in some applications. For example, if you're looking for real estate in another city, you can see what the street and surrounding neighborhood looks like before making a trip. You can see if "Joe's Upscale Restaurant" is really a motor home. You can identify landmarks so you can recognize where to make turns, even if street signs are hard to see. Like most things available on the web, it will have great value to some and absolutely no value to others.
Great answer!
That said, I was able to look at the homes / neighborhood of my friends out of state where I've never gone before.
I like it.
It's a step in the direction for turn-by-turn navigation. Eventually we'll move away from little drawings of the roads you are driving down and will be actual images (3D?) of the street you are on, and need to head down. Maybe little arrows will point out landmarks, points of interest on the screen above the image of the location.
I mean, that's what it might be other than eye candy.
I mean, that's what it might be other than eye candy.
yea, this is what i figured the end product to be. Not sure how much longer it's going to take for this to be implemented but itll be incredible when they finally roll this out
if you look at the picture you will recognize when you are there
It occasionally is really, honestly useful for exactly that reason in the city. Varies from city to city, but in a lot of urban environments, you can be on a street and there can be very few visible address markings. And often the buildings are nondescript in the sense that they don't have manifests of which offices are inside. And so it can be quite difficult to figure out which building is your target.
I don't use it that much, even on my computer, but occasionally I do use it for that purpose.
I recently used street view for the first time, when taking my family to Staten Island for a party of a friend.
We'd never been there before.
While looking up a map route, I saw that there were street views available. So I was able to see what the exits looked like (different from what I thought)... what the town roads looked like (surprisingly hilly in spots) ... and finally, what her neighborhood looked like (all two-three story clapboard homes with more foilage than expected)... and that she was across from a gas station.
All in all, it made it easier for me to drive because I'd "seen" it all before I went. I now check for street views when going to new places.
We'd never been there before.
While looking up a map route, I saw that there were street views available. So I was able to see what the exits looked like (different from what I thought)... what the town roads looked like (surprisingly hilly in spots) ... and finally, what her neighborhood looked like (all two-three story clapboard homes with more foilage than expected)... and that she was across from a gas station.
All in all, it made it easier for me to drive because I'd "seen" it all before I went. I now check for street views when going to new places.
I think it has lots of potential. Right now, yes, its kind of just a Google Earth kind of app, but when other apps integrate it or Google decides to add it as a feature or work it into a GPS kind of feature you will see mouths drop.
I think this is a big confusion amongst people. Google Maps is GOOGLE's app, not Apple's. Copy and paste would be an Apple thing, so don't try and blame Street View for no copy & paste or push. This is an extremely cool and innovative feature for mobile phones and as I stated above I think this is just the base work. Push and Copy & Paste I think will be coming in the next two weeks or so and will come at some kind of event. I think Steve wants to show off some more games on the "Coolest iPod ever" as they named it. An event would provide them with a showcase of how Push will benefit everyone. I think AIM will be there and a couple other big names, and maybe (hopefully) a couple indie developers. That is the one thing I wish Apple would do more.... show love to the indie developers. Don't make an ad about Loopt when its not really one of the biggest apps on the app store. The same goes for Urban Spoon, I think we've all tried it out, but it gets tiring after the first couple times. Come on Apple, show an App that is really a fruit of what the App Store has created (great indie developers).
lol
i Showed a few co workers and friends that app and they said that's scary end of the world type stuff. There's no more privacy.
I was like huh. am i the only person that thinks it's cool....
i Showed a few co workers and friends that app and they said that's scary end of the world type stuff. There's no more privacy.
I was like huh. am i the only person that thinks it's cool....
They had a point. For various reasons, many people were upset that Google was saving street snapshots where you could recognize a person. (Perhaps they didn't like being shown going to visit their best friend's wife during the day, who knows.)
So Google added recognition software that is going through all the views and blurring out the faces.
I like going to my old addresses and seeing all of the changes to my childhood "stomping grounds" and cyberstalk my former girlfriends... LOL
It's great when you've been given an address and you're not positive you have it right.
"So let's see the hotel I'm staying at...hmmm. Ok, that's a car wash. I guess I'd better call them back."
I find it useful. I'm surprised by this thread's existence, actually!
"So let's see the hotel I'm staying at...hmmm. Ok, that's a car wash. I guess I'd better call them back."
I find it useful. I'm surprised by this thread's existence, actually!
From the posts here you'd think this was a new feature in google maps period.
Street view has been out for a while and yet very new to iPhone. Anyone using google maps on the web knew about this. End of the world stuff? Not really, those pictures are dated and were created by a team of people driving around with cams on top of their cars. Not all streets are covered, obviously backwards country dirt roads aren't covered because google pretty much said, 'there's no need for Deliverance here'.
The images aren't as old as google's satellite images but they're still dated and I haven't read anything on how often they'll update them considering it takes a LOT of people a long time to gather the images.
The downside is if the structure your looking for is new and the images haven't been updated, you'll be lost if it's the right 'street view' your looking at.
Still very useful in identifying if your on the right track or not. A good feature bringing pretty much the entire range of google maps abilities to the iPhone.
Street view has been out for a while and yet very new to iPhone. Anyone using google maps on the web knew about this. End of the world stuff? Not really, those pictures are dated and were created by a team of people driving around with cams on top of their cars. Not all streets are covered, obviously backwards country dirt roads aren't covered because google pretty much said, 'there's no need for Deliverance here'.
The images aren't as old as google's satellite images but they're still dated and I haven't read anything on how often they'll update them considering it takes a LOT of people a long time to gather the images.
The downside is if the structure your looking for is new and the images haven't been updated, you'll be lost if it's the right 'street view' your looking at.
Still very useful in identifying if your on the right track or not. A good feature bringing pretty much the entire range of google maps abilities to the iPhone.
I was looking forward to Street View. Then it arrived and I realized how very limited the coverage is.
I mean I can understand that the pictures don't take themselves, but Google seems to pick and choose oddly which areas they offer.
I would think the largest city in Tennessee would have imagery available, but apparently not.
I mean I can understand that the pictures don't take themselves, but Google seems to pick and choose oddly which areas they offer.
I would think the largest city in Tennessee would have imagery available, but apparently not.
I use it for meetings, I scope out where parking is, and if the meeting place has easy access etc.
It is really helpful for me know to have it on the iphone. I do drive though, if you are a kid or in college I can see why it may not be useful.
Imagine that!
Steve Jobs: "Oh, and one more thing...cut n' paste..."
All the fanbois: oooooohhh, aaaaaahhhhh.
As you can probably tell, this strategy has worked like a charm.
