User:Sebwite/Google/Street View

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360° panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level. When it was launched on May 25, 2007, only five cities were included. It has since expanded to more than 40 U.S. cities, and includes the suburbs of many, and in some cases, other nearby cities.

Google Street View displays photos that were previously taken by a camera mounted on an automobile, and can be navigated using either the arrow keys on the keyboard or by using the mouse to click on arrows displayed on the screen. Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and from a variety of angles. Lines that are displayed along the street that is shown indicate the direction followed by that street.

Evolution
Google Street View currently features 57 camera icon markers on the United States map, each representing at least one major U.S. city or area (such as a park), and usually the suburbs and other nearby cities. Additionally, many major U.S. cities now have street view coverage without an icon. In all, with the extensions now reaching quite far beyond these major cities, views can now be seen in parts of all but seven U.S. states (Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia). Though no street views presently exist outside the United States, media has reported plans to introduce the service in the future in many other countries.


 * Two other features included in the June 10, 2008 update were an effective mask of the "Google" car and the application of face-blurring technology on all photos, which effectively lowered the resolution across all photos, even the formerly impressive high resolution images of San Francisco. Also, many nearby metro areas were included, but they did not receive their own camera icons. Google initially used images from spherical video company Immersive Media as well as their own vehicles. Since December 2007, Google has used imagery that belongs exclusively to Google.
 * On April 16, 2008 street view was fully integrated into Google's Google Earth product in version 4.3.

Areas included
Early on, most locations had a more limited number of views, usually contained to the city limits, and only including major streets, and they only showed the buildings up to a certain height. But most of the initial views have been greatly expanded, and have been updated to show scenery all the way to the sky. Collections of photos taken of cities added later are generally more extensive from the beginning, and often include a more detailed area with every side street within the main city, more suburbs, and often more cities that within a close drive of the main city. These areas continue to be expanded with each set of introductions.



New York
Originally, while views could be seen in parts of all five of New York City's boroughs, there were minimal views provided of any New York suburbs. But on June 10, 2008, service was expanded in this area. Now, almost all streets in all five boroughs are included, as well many cities and suburbs in Long Island, Westchester County and North Jersey (such as Newark and Edison). While some of these extended locations include every street, others still feature just the main roads (see complete map).

Much of eastern Upstate New York is featured near the Albany icon (see complete map).

The only other icon identifying a city in New York is Buffalo. But there are three separate cities with isolated sections of coverage in this western section of New York: Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. Of all these three cities, Rochester has the most area covered (see complete map of all three cities).

New England
The first two cities in New England to be introduced were Boston and Providence on December 10, 2007, and many other cities in Massachusetts were also included (such as Worcester, Quincy, Brookfield, and Lowell). On February 12, 2008, Manchester was added, resulting in much of the area between Boston and Manchester being filled in. On June 10, no new icons were added to the New England area, but the coverage was expanded to include the Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut areas (see complete map).

Pennsylvania
The Philadelphia area includes other parts of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a large area around Philadelphia International Airport, the Wilmington, Delaware area and other parts of New Castle County, and a little bit of Elkton, Maryland. In many of the suburban areas in Pennsylvania, complete communities with every cul-de-sac are included. On June 10, parts of I-95 in Cecil County, Maryland and the New Jersey Turnpike were also added. (see complete map).

The Pittsburgh area also includes towns as far as 60 miles North, East, and South of the city, such as New Castle and Uniontown (see complete map)

Virginia
Originally, when Richmond was introduced on March 27, it included only the city and a few areas just outside. It did not even feature Petersburg. When Virginia Beach was added on June 10, coverage was extended to much of the entire region of southeastern Virginia, including Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Chesapeake, and Williamsburg (see complete map).

North and South Carolina
The Raleigh icon initially featured just the cities of Durham and Chapel Hill, but on June 10, was expanded west to include the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point metro areas. (see complete map).

Greenville, South Carolina lacks an icon of its own, but has coverage. It is within close proximity of Charlotte and Columbia, both of which were introduced on June 10 (see complete map of all three cities).

Kentucky
Both the cities of Louisville and Lexington in Kentucky were introduced on June 10 in separate, isolated collections. Louisville has an icon; Lexington does not (see complete map).

Tennessee
In Tennessee, Nashville was introduced on March 27, and was expanded on June 10 (see complete map). Knoxville was added on June 10, but without an icon (see complete map). It is also close to the icons for Atlanta, Columbia, and Charlotte.

Georgia/Alabama/Mississippi
The Atlanta icon, introduced on June 10, became Google's first coverage anywhere in the state of Georgia, and on day one, started to cover quite a lot of area in Atlanta's suburbs. Coverage extends quite some distance beyond Atlanta'a beltway, especially to the northwest (see complete map).

Additionally, Huntsville, Alabama has coverage, though there is no icon in this area. Huntsville is also close to Nashville (see Huntsville area coverage).

Jackson, Mississippi was also introduced on June 10, with an icon of its own, and coverage in the immediate vicinity of the city (see complete map).

Florida
In the Miami view, originally one of the places with fewer details, small part of the cities of Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale were the only areas beyond the immediate Miami area that were included. But on June 10, the Miami icon was extended to included a much larger area, including the urban parts of Palm Beach and Broward Counties, the Florida Keys (all the way to Key West), part of the area around Lake Okeechobee, and part Everglades National Park.

The Tampa icon originally included just the immediate Tampa Bay Area with just St. Petersburg and some nearby suburbs. On June 10, it was expanded to the south to cover much of the urban parts of the west coast of Florida.

Along with the Orlando icon, which also includes Melbourne and Daytona Beach, and the Jacksonville icon that was added on June 10, most urban areas within the panhandle area of Florida are now included (see complete map).

Arkansas
Little Rock was part on the March 27 introductions. Coverage extends quite far to the north and south of the city, including Pine Bluff (see complete map).

Missouri/Kansas/Nebraska
The Kansas City at first just featured Kansas City, its immediate suburbs, and the cities of Lawrence and Baldwin City in Kansas, both to the west of Kansas City. On June 10, 2008, the area was expanded to include other parts of Kansas, including Topeka, plus quite a large area around Topeka. In all, the amount of coverage in the Topeka area is now more than twice as large as that of Kansas City (see complete map).

Additionally, the nearby Omaha and Lincoln were added on June 10 without an icon. The closest icon is that of Kansas City. Though the overall coverage area for these two cities is quite large, not every street in either city has full coverage on every street at the present time (see complete map).

St. Louis was introduced on June 10. Though suburban coverage is quite high, this icon does not include many areas far beyond the immediate vicinity of the city (see complete map).

Ohio
The Columbus icon, introduced on June 10 also includes the nearby areas of Dayton and Cincinnati (see complete map). The nearby Cleveland icon, introduced on March 27, first only featured the immediate Cleveland area. It is yet to be extended much, but the main roads leading to Akron and Canton have been added (see complete map). Toledo was also added on June 10 without an icon, but with isolated coverage of its own (see complete map). Toledo is located closest to the Detroit icon.

Michigan
The Detroit area began with views covering very few streets inside the Detroit city limits, detailed views in the suburbs in much of Wayne County and southern Oakland County, and very few freeways. On February 12, 2008, it expanded to include more Detroit streets, more streets in Macomb County and more freeways. On June 10, Ann Arbor was added (see complete map).

Indiana
Indianapolis's Street View map extends to other cities in Indiana, including Terre Haute, Anderson, Bloomington, Muncie, Marion, Lafayette, Columbus and Greensburg, as well as to Danville, Illinois (see complete map).

Illinois/Wisconsin
When the Chicago area views were first released, very few suburban areas were included. But on February 12, 2008, when Milwaukee was added, all areas between these two cities were included, greatly increasing the number of Chicago suburbs that could be found, as well as the number of streets in the Chicago area. On March 27, 2008, when Madison and Rockford were added, this brought four areas together, extending all the way out to Dubuque, Iowa. Though Chicago, Rockford, Milwaukee, and Madison each have a separate icon, all included areas are continually connected (see complete map of all 4 areas).

California
The Los Angeles area started with views covering very few streets and very few areas from nearby cities. But currently, many other large cities near Los Angeles are covered in detail, including Ontario, San Bernardino, Riverside, much of Orange County and San Fernando (see complete map).

Colorado
The Denver area has also been improved since its day of inception. Originally including only Denver and its immediate suburbs, the areas covered now include all points as far north as Fort Collins and Wellington, and points as far south as Castle Rock (see complete map).

Texas
In Dallas-Ft. Worth, almost every street was visible in the Street View mode from the beginning (see complete map of Dallas-Ft. Worth area).

The Houston area also includes Galveston (see complete map).

Oregon
The Portland, Oregon views includes Vancouver, Washington(see complete map).

Utah
The Salt Lake City icon includes most of Utah's largest cities, including Provo, Ogden, Sandy, etc. (see complete map).

New Mexico
The Albuquerque icon also features Santa Fe, New Mexico. Though no icon exists for Santa Fe itself, this adds to the growing list of state capitals included. As of June 10, 2008, 27 state capitals can be seen in Street View mode (see complete map).

Alaska
Introductions in 2007 included only major American cities. Many of the 2008 releases include smaller cities and rural areas. The February 12 release included places like Juneau, Alaska, the first place outside the contiguous United States to be included (see complete map). On March 27, the cities of Anchorage (see complete map) and Fairbanks (see complete map) in Alaska were also added, bringing the total number of cities on Alaska to three.

Idaho
Boise, Idaho was a part of the February 2008 introductions (see complete map).

Washington
Spokane, Washington was introduced on March 27, 2008; it also included much of Spokane Valley, Washington and portions of Airway Heights, Washington, as well as portions Post Falls, Idaho and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (see complete map).

Other

 * Some icons feature the main city, plus one other major city isolated from the icon city. For example, near the Oklahoma City icon, the city of Tulsa can be found (see complete map). The city of Lexington, Kentucky can be found near Louisville (see complete map).


 * Yosemite National Park was the first icon to be added that refers to a park as opposed to an urban area. The only roads included along with this icon are within the park. The icon is labeled as "Yosemite, California" (see complete map).

In Google Moon, Street View-style panoramas are available for each Apollo mission.

Future
Google has stated that its ultimate goal is to provide street views of the entire world, although the company has not disclosed in advance the exact dates when any particular locations will be added.

In the more immediate future, Google plans to release Street View for various Canadian cities, but modified so that faces and license plates are blurred, due to concerns raised by Canada's federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart about the program breaching Canada's privacy laws. The commissioner's office expressed particular concern with the fact that spherical video company Immersive Media has already collected images for the service from Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Regina, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, especially since those images have already been made commercially available on its web site.

In November 2007, image collection had begun in Australia, with Street View service for the region expected to be made available in the second half of 2008. Images appearing on the Australian Street View will (like Canada) have faces and license plates obscured.

In December 2007, Google began image collection in selected towns and cities in New Zealand, with Street View expected to be made available in Google Maps sometime in 2008.

In March 2008, a Google Street View camera car was also spotted collecting data in Japan.

Google has also been spotted filming in various cities in Italy and Spain, and is attempting to hire 300 drivers to map Switzerland.

Google has demonstrated Street View on prototype phones running Google's Android OS.

In April 2008, Google Street View cars were spotted in Italy with SICK laser scanners added to the scanning array on the car. These would be used for gathering 3D data as well as images.

Privacy issues
Privacy advocates have objected to this Google feature, pointing to views found to show men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, cottagers at public parks, parents hitting their children, males picking up prostitutes and other activities, as well as people engaging in activities visible from public property in which they do not wish to be seen publicly. Google maintains that the photos were taken from public property. Before launching the service, Google removed photos of domestic violence shelters, and allows users to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. When the service was first launched, the process for requesting that an image be removed was not trivial; however, Google has since changed its policy to make removal more straightforward. Images of potential break-ins, sunbathers and individuals entering adult bookstores have, for example, remained active and these images have been widely republished.

In Europe, the creation of Google Street View may not be legal in all places. While the laws vary from country to country, many countries in Europe have laws prohibiting the unconsented filming of an individual on public property for the purpose of public display.

Google has delayed the release of its street views of Washington, D.C. and other nearby areas of Virginia and Maryland (including Baltimore, Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Virginia Beach) and in parts of New Jersey out of concern from the United States Department of Homeland Security that some of the images taken may be of security-sensitive areas.

The Pentagon has banned Google from publishing Street View content of U.S. military bases and asked Google to remove existing content of bases (to which Google has complied).

Some parents have expressed concern over Street View compromising the security of their children.

Aaron and Christine Boring, a Pittsburgh couple sued Google for "invasion of privacy". They claimed that Street View made a photo of their home available online, and it diminished the value of their house, which was purchased for its privacy.

Some bloggers have disputed these privacy concerns. For example, a photograph of the home of the Boring couple was already available on the county tax assessor's website prior to their lawsuit.