Google StreetView in UK goes live | Hacker News Reader

Google StreetView in UK goes live

news.bbc.co.uk

11 pointsftse9 comments

Maybe they can ask for all of the CCTV cameras to contribute to google so not only do you have street view but you have building view.

The user interface isn't very clear. There is no labelled link as you get for satellite/map/terrain and even hovering over the little pegman doesn't bring up a tool tip letting you know what it does when streetview is available. You only get a tooltip when streetview isn't available and the pegman is greyed out. Small changes could definitely make it better.

The route selection also seems a little odd. For example nothing available for Princes Street in Edinburgh but some of the most obscure backstreets are covered.

Having said that the odd route selection did mean I was able to locate my car so it's not all bad.

Looking at streets in London that are not included I wondered whether they're not included for security reasons. Maybe there are government buildings on Princes Street that the authorities don't want "them" to have pictures of..

In general it appears that it's just roads that aren't publicly accessible which one can't go down. It's not just Downing Street, for example, but a bunch of pedestrianised places, presumably for the obvious reason that the Street View car couldn't go down them.

Parts of Princes Street are accessible to only buses and taxis but there are also parts which are universally accessible which aren't covered.

With geotagging of photos increasingly popular, and to a lesser extent tools like photosynth, this seems a little pointless. Having said that I wouldn't rule it out completely.

Street view is also live in the Netherlands today: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Edam, & Groningen are all I can find (the last two being a bit odd to begin with).

Still waiting on "Canal View" :)

I don't get Groningen either, but I'm not complaining. I can see my house! The city of Groningen tends to lobby for these things quite a bit though I can't see Google being influenced by these things.

As an aside, the pictures are from September last year as far as I can tell.

I wonder how many other Hackers are in NL?

I've recently moved here from SF bay area and am looking for good networking opportunities with other techies. Any fun gatherings you know of?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com