Even after a recent update, Google Street View's little yellow man wouldn't venture down Google VP Marissa Mayer's expensive alley. But MapJack's "Jack" mascot knows such privacy is an illusion. The rival to Google's 3D mapping service happily goes down Marissa Mayer's residential street. Below, see the street San Francisco cupcake delivery boys know so well.
We thought maybe Google barred its little yellow Street View man from Marissa Mayer's road by accident. But, as the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Google Earth Blog reports that Google has updated its Street View feature with new maps throughout flyover country, as well as enhancements in the Bay Area. But did the camera trucks visit Mayer's little corner of Stevenson Street? See for yourself, below.
Fort Greene is not gentrifying fast enough! At least that's the experience of cultural critic and dude about town Touré. The single-named author was living right across from a crackhouse on South Oxford street in Fort Greene, only a block away South Portland, Time Out New York's most desirable place to live in 2006. But even with a sushi place on the next corner, there was still a crack house across from his apartment. After a bout of black liberal guilt, Touré tried to get the po-po to clear the streets, but they ignored his calls. We don't judge Touré's conflicted anti-neighborhood crack house stance—since the advent of Google Maps, Mole Edition, we are all snitches now. [NYT]
For the "streetview" feature of Google Maps, the search engine's agents tour around city neighborhoods in a discreet van. Sometimes they catch more than just identifiable landmarks. Here, on a notorious drug trafficking corner on the South Side of Chicago, Google shows what looks very much like a transaction between a black man in long shorts and a baseball cap, and a sedan, numberplate clearly visible. And, because the map-makers take panoramic photographs as they drive around, one can see the exchange from at least half a dozen angles, as the van approaches, and then looks back. Amazing. This scene has been floating around the web the last few days, but we've pulled together nine shots from different angles, or close-ups, from Google's map site. Enlarged versions are after the jump. (Incidentally, movie-makers have developed thrillers around clues buried in soundtracks (Blow Out) or videotape (Black Rain, for example). I'm waiting for the first mystery in which the clues are sprinkled across Google Maps, Flickr and all the other web sites on which we inadvertently appear.)
Outside of geekdom, Internet Explorer still dominates browser market share. That means for most people, the Web works the way Microsoft wants it to. And so far, for those using the newest version of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft's version of the Web doesn't include Google Maps. Or at least not a very useful version of it. We're sure a fix is high on Microsoft's priority list. Check out the screenshot Blogoscoped's Phillip Lenssen nabbed, below.
A reminder: Marissa Mayer lives on the 38th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, and you don't. With that address comes an unusual perk: Her own personal stoplight at Third and Stevenson. Mayer and the other residents of the concierge conclave have arranged to pay the city $165,000 for a traffic light at the dead-end street which leads to the hotel garage. (Remember that as you sit on a 9X Muni bus, waiting for the light to change.) Perhaps the light will make it easier for Google Maps, which Mayer oversees, to send a driver down Stevenson. Mayer has defended Google's Street View feature against charges of invading people's privacy — but Google's camera-cars have yet to venture onto her street. After the jump, minutes from the city meeting (PDF) accepting Mayer's gift:
1,200 Googlers moved into their new office at 345 Spear Street San Francisco this week. We thought we'd use Google Maps Street View to show you what the place looks like, but the little yellow man won't go there. How embarrassing for him. Fortunately, Curbed SF will. Check out what $20 million can buy in four photos, below.
In Europe, Google's on a massive hiring binge for the Street View feature of Google Maps, where camera-equipped vehicles snap photos of streetscapes. It's bringing on 300 drivers for the Switzerland-based effort. But the project has been held up by the whim of a founder. Sergey Brin, we hear, is insisting that the project use hybrid Priuses, rather than the staid Saturn Astra it used in Australia, shown here, or the Chevrolet Cobalt Googlers drive in the U.S. Brin believes Toyota's gas-sipping Priuses are better for Google's image. Just one problem.
Should we be creeped out that Google's getting into electoral politics? The search engine has launched a special Iowa caucus map on Google Maps. Innocent and useful enough, we suppose. Starting tonight, the page will display real-time caucus results by county and party from across the state. All this technology almost makes you want to vote online!
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.
As Google prepares to add Australian cities to its Street View feature, Seb Ruiz has done us all a favor, publishing pictures of what a Google Street View car looks like. The vehicle is equipped with cameras to photograph streetscapes for Google Maps users. Now, if you see this car coming and would prefer not to be frozen in time at your present location — say an adult bookstore, or anywhere on the planet while carrying a Kindle — you'll have the chance to dive behind the nearest parked car. Here's the picture you'll want to memorize.
According to Google Maps Street View, Facebook's New York office on 551 Fifth Avenue is inside a bus. We have reasons to believe this is not, in fact, the case. Silicon Alley Insider reports that the office is actually located on the sixth floor of the building itself. Photographic proof was not made available by SAI's tipster, however. We're pretty sure you can do better. Don't let us down. Google's bad intelligence, after the jump.
Palestinian militants use Google Earth to target rocket attacks on the Israeli military, the Guardian reports. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade rockets have killed about a dozen people in Sderot over the last three years. Of course, the news is hardly a mark against the company's "don't be evil" credo. Google Earth is only as good, or evil, as its users. Right now, KPBS in San Diego is using Google Maps to alert residents to the locations of nearby out-of-control fires.
Oh god, Evite. It starts with an email about a party with no information about that party, and then it gets worse. But in many cases there's no reason you have to use the most popular site. Here's what to use instead of Evite, YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, Digg, and MapQuest.
With the advent of cheap, commercially available satellites images through Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth, anyone can play the military-intelligence game. An analyst with the Federation of American Scientists discovered a pair of Chinese Jin-class submarines in clear view of passing satellites. Only one Jin-class sub was known of publicly before, when the same analyst spotted it in July. It's not known if the one of the subs in this shot is the same one seen before, but U.S. intelligence reports claim that China is building up to 5 of the Jin-class.
