Northern California - when's the last time you checked google street view?

Cause they've really expanded, including some of our favorite roads.......like all the way up Diablo.

Pretty neat, if you ask me.

Wickedly cool. So I can preview what I have to climb tomorrow ... :lol:

My street view shows me putting my bike on my car rack.
The picture was taken early Sunday, September 23, 2007. I know
the date because it was only time I took two bikes on my car rack.
I was too busy to notice that Google was taking my picture.

^^ that is pretty cool.

wow they pretty much have the whole bay area now, except sunnyvale for some reason...

http://kensingtonvictoria.com/blog/2008/04/22/dude-crashes-bike-on-google-street-view-pics/ (http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&hl=en&q=&layer=c&cbll=41.466608,-81.745762&cbp=1,20.89648551146678,,0,-2.5605277167245255&ll=41.468409,-81.745352&spn=0.003586,0.007296&z=17)

old -- but relevant

That is so cool... i kind of freaked when i first found this feature.!

wow they pretty much have the whole bay area now, except sunnyvale for some reason...

really? seems sunnyvale works. my dad saw the google guy a couple days ago, and waved. maybe he made it in the shot haha

Look really close at clement and 9th ave.... really really close..and you'll see a guy hitch hiking,.... see him?


closer keep looking...............

keep looking......... see him...see him?





OOps! He got a ride! : )

Wow, they've really expanded. Last time I looked, it was pretty much just downtown San Francisco, maybe a bit of the peninsula. Now the entire Sacramento/Bay Area, uh, area (and then some) is pretty much blanketed. Nice.

I showed my wife our house, and she said it kind of creeped her out that people could see where we live. Then I pointed out that the address where it thought it was is half a block off, at least.

I showed my wife our house, and she said it kind of creeped her out that people could see where we live. Then I pointed out that the address where it thought it was is half a block off, at least.

There's no way for it to be 100% accurate.

Google maps is a big GIS (Geographic Information System). A GIS is essentially a database with spatial components.

The streets "layer" is essentially a HUGE DB of line segments (usually block to block, but sometimes longer or shorter). So imagine how many of those little segments comprise the entire US streets layer. Probably billions plus.

Anyway each segment is like a record in the DB with attributes. Attributes include the shape and coordinates (spatial component), the speed limit, name of the road, length end to end, and the starting and ending address for each side of the street.

So basically when you say "I want 900 Main St." The GIS will look for the segment that would contain it. Let's say it returns a segment from 800-1000, it will basically place 900 in the middle of the segment, 1000 would be at the end 950 would be 3/4 the way down etc.

GIS is part of what I do at work, and is what I specialized in for my BA in Geography. :thumb:

I figured it was something like that. But between that and Google Earth, you can't even let your yard go without the possibility that siblings thousands of miles away might check up on you - "I see you guys haven't kept those Camelias trimmed!"

A friend of mine sent me this, which made me chuckle.
http://www.tristition.com/2008/06/18/image_of_the_day_google_maps_prius_pulled_over/
It needs a good caption..........

http://lh5.ggpht.com/DiabloScottsBikeBlog/SFriUzmbC6I/AAAAAAAAC7Q/jyPJtc59ntg/s800/Google%20Maps%20Street%20View%20Prius%20Ticket.jpg

Hi Mom!