Google Maps
We all know that Google’s product Street View is awesome. Here are some interesting discoveries, tidbits, and features of Maps and Street View.
Street View was launched in a handful of American cities in 2007, then spread to cities and rural areas all over the world, and has now gone even beyond that. Street View has been expanded to indoor for places like the White House, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many others across the world. Using Google Street View Treks, you can take an in depth tour of a few special places on Earth. I took the tour of Venice and was treated by: a video tour, special views, a view of the city in the 1800s, and a suggestion of how to spend a day in Venice based on my interests. Hopefully, you’re all aware that much of Venice is best navigated by small boats on the canals. Google Maps doesn’t just use cars and satellites. While they have driven over 5 million unique miles, their 20 petabytes of data (mostly pictures, but also metadata and actual maps) were also acquired via Gondolas, snow mobiles, pedestrians, bikes, trolleys, underwater vehicles, camels, and probably other things. The camels are for an expedition through the Sahara, which Adil can now compare to real life. I HIGHLY recommend these treks.
Interesting things that have been caught on camera for Google Street View
Things that have been discovered by Google Earth
Several things have been discovered on Google Earth. The two I find most interesting are awesome landscapes in the middle of nowhere. First, the largest natural bridge in the world — Fairy Bridge in rural China:
And Mount Mabu forest aka Google Forest in Mozambique (it got this nickname because it was found on Google Earth). The area covers 27 square miles and is home to a very unique plant and wildlife population including several that were completely unknown until 2005 and later when scientists found the area on Google Earth and took a closer look.
Other random tidbits
As we learned in Mehul Mehta’s Fake Words and Fictitious Entry, it is somewhat common practice to throw in some made up information to catch people trying to plagiarize your work. That is the main theory behind Argleton, a “phantom settlement” that was on Google Earth and Maps for a long time, but has since been removed. It is in rural England, and was made to look like a farm town instead of the empty land it actually is.
And lastly, my favorite tidbit. When Fiat found out that the Google Street View car would be driving all throughout Sweden, they sent a driver to follow the car around in a Fiat for dozens of miles. This long con climaxed with the driver parking the Fiat in front of Volkswagen’s headquarters. Go find the headquarters on Street View, and you’ll find this:
Now, go explore
