[IanW99]

Goggle has now released the street views of New Zealand, see Google Streetview (http://maps.google.co.nz/help/maps/streetview/) for details.

Ian

[StevieD]

yup, all those hazy faced people that can't be identified :)

[Kim39]

Interesting as our address is wrong, they say 154, when its 158.

Kim

[benandclare]

Shame it was a cloudy day when we were done ;)

But for my business could be quite an asset as I can look up what the house and garden looks like :nice1


In the youtube clip is that the guy from 2 pints of lager?

[James 1077]

I would have sorted out the front garden before the back one if I had known they were coming around! Now the place looks like a bit of a dump out the front!

And if they had told me when they were going to be driving around I would have been out the front with the kids so that their grandparents could see them! :)

[marybelle]

This is a fab bit of kit!! :clap Just spent ages "strolling" around our soon to be home town. We have checked out where OH office will be and the kids schools! Can't wait to show them when they wake up tomorrow.

[Mrs Pony]

how cool is that! Just checked out a place OH stayed at!

[Georgebulldog]

Can you move up & down the street yet or just go around in a circle? I can't seem to find out if I can move up my road

[IanW99]

Can you move up & down the street yet or just go around in a circle? I can't seem to find out if I can move up my road

If you can see a line that indicates the road you are on, there should be one or two arrows on the line that you can click on to move in that direction.

If that doesn't work, you can pick up the icon on a person on the map and move it to a new location.

Ian

[Croft]

I was waiting for this to come out for NZ - thanks IanW99. I shall have take look around when I have more time!

[Georgebulldog]

If you can see a line that indicates the road you are on, there should be one or two arrows on the line that you can click on to move in that direction.

If that doesn't work, you can pick up the icon on a person on the map and move it to a new location.

Ian

Thanks Ian

[pinkpiggy]

Interesting as our address is wrong, they say 154, when its 158.

Kim

Ours is wrong too. Shows No. 2 when we're actually No. 1.

[JandM]

Ohhhhh, I've just spent AGES revisiting favourite places. (Sniff!)

[M-Squared]

Heh it showed the street down from us, then the street above us! :D Thankfully they've not come up our shared driveway. I honestly would feel like that's just way too close.

[Jacqi B]

Thankfully they've not come up our shared driveway. I honestly would feel like that's just way too close.

I'm glad you said that. I do think it is cool and a really useful tool, but I'm sure I can'te be alone in thinking it is just a wee bit creepy (creepy is the wrong word, but I can't find the right one just now)

[ColeyNZ]

I can see my house!

I just wished they had this 2 months ago... I might have ended up in Merivale.

[CJ22]

Yeah it would have been a spectacularly useful tool a while we were house-hunting :)

Hey-ho! Still a cool gadget though. The shots for the UK were taken last year, and are set to come out soon, so I understand.

[Flutterby]

hehe, just been sat here with my daughter yelling "Grandmas house, i want to go there"

[BkyMonster]

Hehe. My OH works for a mapping software company and they were quite excited about this. He used it to show his boss where our house is in hopes of a raise when his 3 month trial is up :exit :D

[Leccy-Lee]

Its very impressive indeed.

Have you seen "Earthmine", its a newer project that at first glance looks same as Google.
But they use very very high tech cameras and scanners, to the point in all there photos and images you can get measurements of buildings and even measure the size of your front living room window online!

Its currently not public, but being used and trailed by agencies and businesses etc. Its also going to be interactive. The theory being you could say, walk around a city and click on the supermarket to do your online shopping. Then step back onto the street, walk down to the post office, click on it and go inside to complete some application forms. Walk down to bank and pay some bills. You get the idea, i total virtual world scenario.

Heres a shot of an Earthmine image, the resolution and detail is so high they say you could see the colour of a cats eye sat the other side of the street. And this example shows how the measurements and height of buildings can be checked.

http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/original/0000/4666/4666v1.png

With such incredible detail there will be privacy issues, but imagine the usefulness of such a system! Council officials could go check the size and height of a new shed you've built online!?

EDIT: www.earthmine.com

[CJ22]

Soon, I will never have to leave the house :)

[Leccy-Lee]

Completed unrelated, but if you use Google Earth at all. You can now walk around Disneyworld in 3D :) lol

[mikey39]

Completed unrelated, but if you use Google Earth at all. You can now walk around Disneyworld in 3D :) lol

Coooooool one of my most favorite places is Disneyland Florida, can look to see what new rides there is now :nice1

[Leccy-Lee]

Coooooool one of my most favorite places is Disneyland Florida, can look to see what new rides there is now :nice1

I know this is being awfully picky, but Disneyland is in California :nice1
Disneyworld is in Florida :exit

But yeah its pretty cool but takes a while to load up, just find it in google earth and click on the 3D buildings option.

[Gar1]

I know this is being awfully picky, but Disneyland is in California :nice1
Disneyworld is in Florida :exit

But yeah its pretty cool but takes a while to load up, just find it in google earth and click on the 3D buildings option.

No its in in Paris. :D

I do like your description of Earthmine sounds cool. Just not sure how I will be able to justify having legs anymore.

[Leccy-Lee]

No its in in Paris. :D

I do like your description of Earthmine sounds cool. Just not sure how I will be able to justify having legs anymore.

No that would be Disneyland Resort Paris or as shortened to DLRP :nice1
(see told you i was a Theme Park anorak...lol)

[Flutterby]

:laugh i had the disneyland/disneyworld debate with my OH and we went to a travel agent to settle it and were told there was no Disneyland outside of paris:exit

[M-Squared]

:laugh i had the disneyland/disneyworld debate with my OH and we went to a travel agent to settle it and were told there was no Disneyland outside of paris:exit

:laugh Where the heck did I work then? :laugh I was there, in Seine-et-Marne, for two years. Maybe it was all a dream hehe!

[Flutterby]

Maybe :yes

[JandL]

That is super cool!
I don't really like the idea of the virtual shopping to go with it, you might miss all the best shops if you stick to the main shopping areas :). Whats wrong with a searchable database eh!
I can't really see Earthmine one with all the extras really benefitting the general public more than google, (read, those who pay more could get more coverage?), but I can see the use for businesses for many things. I spose you could work out distances of things, when house buying, but not so much day to day.

[D&D]

thank you this is fantastic

[Brian]

Where's blanket man??? I can't find him!

[M-Squared]

Maybe :yes

A bad one at that. :D :laugh

[Tui2too]

I finally got to the library to use their high speed internet to try this out (we're on dial-up at home). It IS amazing!!! I was ready to send OH on a $3000 reccie so he could video the streets of Paraparaumu out the car window (lol) now I have just spent two hours walking around myself and it didn't cost a cent! I walked by the house we'd like to buy, saw the rental we would initially land in etc etc I even got lost a few times down side streets!

It is truly an amazing tool to get a real feel for a place, I had imagined it quite differently! Everyone considering moving needs to try this out first! :-)

[almdudler]

you're so right! We are moving to NZ in Feb. I am a Kiwi and my husband is Austrian and I was able to show him where I grew up, the streets of Wellington, my parents' house and my parents' land. It gave him another burst of excitement about the move because he was able to see what his new neighbourhood might look like and which mcdonalds he will go to :S

Such a great reccie tool and heaps of fun!

[doowrehsij]

lol... really makes a difference if the sun is shining or not as to which places look nice!

[D&D]

lol... really makes a difference if the sun is shining or not as to which places look nice!

too true!

[Parsley]

This is so cool - I can see my sister's house, and (slightly unrelated) I can find the two lovely houses I lived in Cairns (QLD) and have shown my OH, who is now envious. :D

[aberdian]

So cool. I can see my house with our neighbours boat parked on the street :) So cool.

[elleann]

This is The Most Fantastic Tool Ever!! I've just had my first look at the place I'm going to be working at next year!! :-)

What is also really cool is that if you're looking for a rental, you can check out stuff on TradeMe, then find the street on Google Maps and with the street view, you can check out the neighbourhood and even see the rental itself, if there is a good outside piccie on TradeMe. I'm astounded - even when I looked on old Google Maps with the terrain view on, it didn't convey the reality of those long, winding streets going uphill, not to mention all the incredible trees, bushes, plants and grass everywhere!

Awesome!

[ant7jen]

I love it, I have been driving all over the place from my couch and no gas milage whatsoever! Niw I am waiting for the virtual reality version where you really feel like you are there!

[Tui2too]

LOL is it driving or walking? It advances so slowly it feel like a stroll but then you're on the street IN the traffic! I found myself getting tense with the cars on the wrong side of the road so it seemed virtually real enough! (lol)

[God-Man]

Ah, nice to see Street View in NZ.

Of course, most of the cities I wanted to see were either photographed in TERRIBLE weather, or not at all (Waiheke Island).

[SunnyNelson]

Street View Interactive Images...if you aren't...
too sure exactly where to start looking. And I guess if you are overseas and not familiar with our region in the Top of the South, then you really won't know where to start.
Well I thought it might be a good opportunity to show you these navigatiable interactive Google Streetview shots of Nelson as a great place to start your looking, or should that be virtual "drive".
1. Arguably one of the most recognised vistas (http://nzblog-nzblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/princes-drive-original-lookout.html) / photos of Nelson - good place to start. Still photo of view here (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K2GymdJWr4Y/SS76FZC0-JI/AAAAAAAAAAM/7DK2tV2wPOU/s1600-h/DSC_0206+(Custom).JPG).
2. The higher end of Princes Drive (http://nzblog-nzblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/princes-drive-newer-lookout-position.html), our highest publically accessible subdivision.
3. Rocks Rd waterfront (http://nzblog-nzblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/rocks-rd-waterfront.html), with Fifeshire Rock & Haulashore Island in front of you.
4. Our famous Tahunanui Beach right in front (http://nzblog-nzblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/tahuna-beach.html) of you.
5. Neslon City Council bldg in front, in town (http://nzblog-nzblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/nelson-city-council-on-steps-of.html).
6. Overlooking Stoke, Nelson Airport, Rabbit Island onto Tasman Bay (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_K2GymdJWr4Y/SS7_wd-2FuI/AAAAAAAAAAc/ZJg8A-qHclY/s1600-h/20070927_40+(Custom).JPG). This ones not interactive, just agood image I feel.

[WANZLittles]

Cool, we actually used that in finding out current house, we would go look at the neighborhood before we physically drove there.

[PECJ]

My wife has the habit of dropping into a coffee shop in Pauatahanui (ground up cafe - for those in the know) after dropping off our son at school. You can see our car (and her bad parking) on street view!

[IanW99]

Just a little update to say that Google Streetview has now been launched for the UK.

Doesn't yet cover the whole country but thought it might be of interest to some of you?

Ian

[CJ22]

It seems to be limited to major urban centres, and some of those are a bit spotty. Not sure if they're just rolling it our gradually, or they didn't actually photograph any more. It maybe that the UK road network is too dense compared to the US to capture the whole lot.

[MaryMc]

oohh, I just saw our old house in the UK (we left to come here 19 years ago), still looks exactly the same!

[JandM]

Word here is that they are gradually doing more of the UK, and will be making it available a bit at a time. M actually met a Google camera car a couple of months back, here in rural Dorset, nowhere near anywhere that has come online yet, so we guess it's true!