Google Street view for New Zealand
Posted December 2nd, 2008 by peterAlthough we could not find a posting on Google official blog, several sources today have advised that Google street view is now available for Google maps in New Zealand.
Apparently Google people have been driving around New Zealand over the past year in their Holden Astra’s with cameras on the roof of the vehicles, photographing our country pretty intensively.
After having a brief look, and typing in a couple of addresses, we found it pretty easy to use. If the address you type in actually has a street frontage, a thumbnail image will appear in the resulting bubble, with a Street view link under the photo. Simply click on the thumbnail and the image appears.
You have a series of controls to use to move the image around and you can "move" up or down the road by clicking on the arrows, and down the bottom right of the page isa small map with a person figure, which you can move around to another location within the map, which is quite neat.
There has been much discussion in the media about privacy. Apparently peoples faces are made indistinguishable and vehicle number plates cannot be read, but we don’t see this as a major issue for law abiding folk. But every one will have their own opinion.
It appears that that our business address in Koru Place in Stoke was missed by the camera. Maybe it is because that while on google maps it does show Koru Pl, the satellite view is at least 3 years out of date. and does not actually show the street from the satellite.
Street view will be of use to many, even if it is to just look at their own property. One of the most obvious users will be those looking at purchasing a new property using the net as their first place of visit. They will be able to see the state of the neighbourhood which real estate photographs don’t show.
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