I Can See Your House From Here

[kliljedahl]

I really like Mark Morford's columns:

The landmark San Francisco Chronicle building sits like a grizzled old cinder block at 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. It's squat and bulky and desperately needs a paint job and a deep colon cleanse and some shrubbery. Do you want to see it?
Do you want to see its cluttered rooftop and see all the buildings surrounding it and zoom in to the point where you can, if you squint just right, see various cars in the street and the giant parking garage next door and to where you can almost, if you get a good magnifying glass, observe various sunlight-deprived writers and editors milling about Mission Street smoking cigarettes and discussing how to win more Pulitzers?

Because now, of course, you can. Just click here. Be sure to move the slider on the left all the way up. Boom. There we are.

Alamo Square Park? That's right in my neighborhood. Very famous, in lots of postcards. Here's a nearby address. (It's a B&B.) Click it. Use the slider on the left to zoom all the way up. See the green patch? That's the park. Look closely and you can almost see the people strolling, the dogs frolicking, the slackers slacking. I walk through that park almost every day. Isn't that cool? Isn't that weird?

Link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/04/08/notes040805.DTL&nl=fix


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[NMDemDist2]

1. that is too cool, I looked up my house and by shop and my step mom's

house..... google is something else I tell ya!

[ltfranklin]

2. Why do I get this vision

Of thousands of people going to their backyard, dropping trou and mooning google?

Yeah, I know it probably won't work...but it's the thought that counts!

[0007]

3. Beautiful fucking beautiful!

Love to see it!

[kliljedahl]

4. Yeah it's not live

Some of them are months & years old. But its a great thought.


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[ltfranklin]

8. Yes...

But I just thought of a great way for Google to promote this...have a contest for the first person that finds

(a) Some couple having sex outdoors at the precise moment the satellite takes a picture.

(b) an Automobile accident in progress

(c) A multi-car police chase.

(d) A multi-engine fire in progress.

(e) a Presidential motorcade.


Now THAT would be interesting...and if they use the idea, I WANT A PIECE OF IT!

[kliljedahl]

9. They aren't that good yet

You want that kind of detail, in real time? Better check with Rummy.


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[ltfranklin]

11. Well, for individuals, maybe.

The ones they publish are probably not good enough to catch individuals, so (1) is probably out.

However, I have noted that the pictures in some areas are good enough to spot individual vehicles. Not so you could identify the make and model, but at least you can identify the type (car, truck, fire engine) and placement. They do show the date that the pictures were taken, I beleive, so an enterprising person could check the archived local media for that day, find accidents, car chases and fires that happened, and if they're lucky and the pictures were taken at the right time, they might find one of the other instances in the pics.

It's my understanding that the quality depends on which one of the satellites took the pics, also whether they're color or B/W.

Update: How about this one...find a possible crop circle! For instance, check this out:

11 km SW of Oswego, Montana, United States 7/7/1996

Update to Update: Actually, I cheated...got that one from Terraserver.com...wonder what shows up on Google?

[warrior1]

5. This one's is better.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/address.aspx

If it's been updated recently.

[kliljedahl]

7. Yeah I've played with it too

But it's MSN & I HATE MSN!
It also shows the house 2 two houses West of mine, Google is right on. Better photo too.


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[Sparkle]

6. I can see my house!

AT least the top of it.

[DistressedAmerican]

10. Is There Still A Police Helicopter Hovering Over it?