Wow, google maps has come a long way in only a couple of years. I've spent the morning doing no work, choosing instead to "wander" the Streets of New York. Brilliant.

This is, of course, a great thing: now the stressed desk jockeys of New York can save so much time - rather than actually take 30 minutes out of the day to get some fresh you can now just go for a "walk" around Central Park online, thus avoiding the hassle of actually having to go outdoors at all.

Next step, virtual sandwiches please then we won't need to eat. Sweet!

Now, if they would just make their software actually /usable/, I might begin to like it...

There is certainly nothing new about this. Google are just catching up with what other local providers already have.

hitta.se in Sweden have had his functionality for some time now, for example: http://www.hitta.se/SearchCombi.aspx?SearchType=4&wflWhite=1a1b&wflPink=4a&vad=&var=tegnerlunden+2

Don't be ridiculous, Google is certainly not catching up. Google has just taken the virtual tour to the next level - one where script kiddies will soon have fun devising amusing pranks and getting them displayed for the world to see.

The new vulnerabilities that this tool can spawn will be breathtaking, and the graffiti is going to be awesome.

I, for one, welcome the mayhem this evolution will bring.

;-)

One day I will stumble upon a picture of my toilet on google maps. *shiver*

Oh come on, even Microsoft beat them to it. 3D mapping of both Swindon and Brighton (and other places in foreign-land) was introduced last month on Virtual Earth. see

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2007/04/28/april-2007-virtual-earth-imagery-release.aspx

and

http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2007/05/virtual-earth-uk-cities-brighton-and.html

Possibly Google's greatest search tool ever, as evidenced by this view:

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?mapprev=1&ie=UTF8&ll=36.148133,-115.16367&spn=0.101605,0.21698&z=13&om=1&layer=c&cbll=36.112066,-115.173077&cbp=1,271.35,0.5,0

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=6206+Oliver+Loving+Trail,+78749&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.737461,59.765625&ie=UTF8&ll=30.222217,-97.870009&spn=0.001022,0.001824&t=k&z=19&iwloc=addr&om=1

Go two houses to the left. The one with the green Civic in the driveway. The arrow is most closely pointing at the pool, 6201.

This has to be one of the greatest things I've seen come out of Google since Earth! Congratulations, the scale of it is enormous.

I'll just put in some slight complaints tho despite them not detracting from the pure Awesome-ness of it all -

-Their panoramic camera is a bit susceptible to exposure blowouts or underexposures, and the occasional large lens flare and other photographic nasties (hundreds of thousands of pics you'd expect this).

-Aside from the above, bad focusing can make a mess of some shots.

-After walking around New York and Frisco for about five or ten minutes, my system began to slow down, IE reported it was taking up 150mb ram!

-You get occasional black semi-circling at the top and bottom edges as the camera goes up or down hill. They could have filled in some photo areas with blue for the sky and maybe grey for the ground instead.

But as I said, the system is frickin amazing! Boo and Hiss to those who say it's been done before, congrats to Google for making it happen on a massive scale.

P.S. WOO-YAY More dirty billboards! More dirty billboards! Somebody catalogue them all on a site somewhere! Thx Ian.

"3D mapping of both Swindon and Brighton (and other places in foreign-land) was introduced last month"

Yes, but weren't they plonked into the Channel or the North Sea, as is Microsoft's wont?

...and implement a massive army of the mini-black helicopters that Liverpool has with cameras on the bottom, so when someone uses Google Earth, they can get real-time, live views of where they want to look?

I for one would be willing to pay a significant amount for this service. Views of Stringfellow's rooftop pool, anyone? Keira Knightley's pool at her secret Cotswold home?

...and this strange van drives past with lots of them there CCTV-type cameras hanging off the sides of it. No privacy concerns for Google then, eh?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=3333+California+Street,+San+Francisco,+CA,+94118&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.410045,69.433594&ie=UTF8&ll=37.791354,-122.451231&spn=0.009123,0.02399&z=16&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.78686,-122.449921&cbp=1,299.424143137058,0.640093744825339,3