Google Street View rolls out in Boston and other places that don't matter
Google has introduced its spy-on-your-neighbors Street View service in more cities. Now unsuspecting patrons can be spotted entering strip clubs in Dallas, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, Valleywagger Tim Faulkner's hometown of Providence and my hometown of Boston. I've been waiting for Boston to be featured in Street View since it was introduced earlier this year. It's not particularly useful, other than saying "that's my house!" But, it's fun regardless. I do have one other complaint about Google Maps though.
We had a fairly large construction project in Boston that you might have heard of: The Big Dig. It involved taking 9 miles of elevated highway and putting it underground, plus a few new underwater tunnels and the widest suspension bridge in the world. The main parts were finished a few years ago and the entire project will be done eventually — or so they say. Unfortunately for us Bostonians, Google's satellite imagery of the project hasn't been updated in at least four years.
On the map below, you can see the suspension bridge without any cars or road markings on it, and an ugly bridge just to the right of it which has since been torn down. The road maps are correct if you go into road view, but we have OLD satellite data. Just northwest of the bridge you can see where the old sat shots and the new meet. Forget the street shots, Google: Upgrade our satellite photos, now! This service that you provide free of charge isn't worth what I paid for it!