Jesse Joyner, PhD

Google has done it again – something very practical, widely-used, and free. This time it is a feature called “Street View” on Google Maps. Google has mapped out every street and block of certain cities in America with a rotating camera on top of a car. That means you can type in any address in these cities and get a real picture of the house or restaurant or whatever. Then you can scroll up and down the street (and around the next corner, and so on) and see the rest of the block. I just spoke on the phone with a guy that I’m going to meet up with at his house. I’ve never been to his house before. He gave me his address and told me he was the second house from the end on the left. With that information, I looked it up on Street View and was able to say to him, “So you’re the two-story, white top with a six-paneled window on the first floor, right?” He confirmed my information as true.

You have to see this feature for yourself. If you don’t live in a mapped out city (indicated by blue outlines on the streets when you click on “street view” or by a camera image on the city) then type in the address of someone you know in a mapped out city and go sit on their virtual doorstep. This is amazing.

http://maps.google.com/maps