So today I was mapping something on Google Maps, googles vastly superior interface for getting directions, and I know if you click on the little arrows for your start and stop locations it will zoom in on that spot in a little bubble next to the directions.
Well, today I got a new treat. It had the little + / – for zooming in further of backing out, and then below that it had a link for “Map” and then “Satelite”.
I was like “No fucking way” and sure enough when I clicked on it, a little satelite picture of the area I’m driving to popped up. You could even make out cars and trees. Now I’m just waiting to be able to go outside, flip the thing off, and find a picture of myself sitting on my roof flipping of the satelite.
It isn’t that detailed yet, but man, it is still freaking cool
Everyone, stop using stupid yahoo maps, or mapquest. Google is way awesomer, and it plugs in w/ Google Local so you can search for things w/ in the are show on the map by name…like “Wallmart” or “Pizza place” or things like that.
ilnira says
also, because the photos are like six months old you’ll have to wait a while to see yourself flipping off the satellite, but yeah.
rschmit says
I think those photos are ancient though. Like declassified satellite photos. Or something. Because while messing around with it, I noticed that in the pictures Soldier Field is still under construction, and so was Wacker Drive.
harambee78 says
Still, cool though. Put in my address and I can see the park, the golf course, the prospect. cool.
kelglitter says
That is cool. Ellen discovered it last week and showed me (we make maps, so we notice stuff like that pronto). I was happy, but I wonder how long it’ll last. Yahoo Maps used to have that to pretty good detail less the local search stuff (I could make out which little square was my house on my street), but it was removed after 9/11 because people were worried terrorists could exploit it somehow. I’m not sure how, but then, right after 9/11 they were all paranoid about everything (and perhaps rightly so).
bigcat2k says
Google bought their own satelite I heard, and on top of that NASA has software out that can take advantage of non-military imaging satelites, and you can download it for free. It was on slashdot a few weeks ago…around the same time as the google maps real-time tracking of taxis in 11 major cities.
Google is so cool.
harambee78 says
Hey, Ben. Didn’t you originally have more than just “OMG” in the title of this post? Something like “OMFGGCD???” I don’t know, I just thought i remembered seeing a longer sequence of letters.
If I’m right, let me know what it was and what it all stood for. It’s for my linguistics class I’m teaching. I’m doing a lecture on internet writing systems.