I know Google has a lot of money – a lot of money. Enough money to pay someone (or many someones) to drive all the roads of the world and take 360 degree photos every 5m or so…and develop the software to stitch the photos together and get them working with Google Earth.
But why?
Who’s using this “tool”?
I know I am…but I’m a traffic engineer. When I first saw street view, I honestly thought Google’s target market was me. But there aren’t enough transportation professionals out there to justify the massive cost to put Street View all together – and then just give it away for free.
I can think of just a couple of ideas why regular “civilians” would use Google’s Street View:
- Real Estate. This one makes the most sense. Moving to a new city or a new neighborhood, Street View can save you lots of time and money by showing you the “curb appeal” of your potential new home.
- Navigation. If you print out directions from google maps, you can get the Street View of all your turns. Adds a new dimension to…..take your 4th right…2nd left…
“Anonymous” answers the question of Street View – What’s the point?
It gives the googlegeeks some idea of what Outside looks like.
So how do you use Street View? Is it a distraction or a useful tool? I’d love to find out…
2cargarage 
I LOVE google street view (purely for entertainment value – well slightly diluted with navigational purposes) – my favorite is the picture of RRT in his bathrobe in the window of 820 drinking a coffee!!
well i’m a little late, but i use street view so when I’m going somewhere new, I know what it will look like when I get there. Seeing things only from above can leave me confused when I arrive on site.
btw, I am a (former professional) traffic engineer. I have lots of thoughts for improving the roadways and construction zones where I live, but don’t think anyone in charge would actually care to make safety and efficiency improvements.
Hey there Ryan,
I work for a company that is a big proponent of Google Street View (SV), but not for a reason that would seem overtly valuable to the casual observer, nor me, or anyone on our staff when we first started our company!
In short, we document traffic incidents across the States, and one of the features that were wildly popular per our visitors was the SV of where the incident occurred.
A visitor comment left on our site a while back made it pretty clear that we were offering something intrinsically valuable:
“i am in florida and not able to visit the site where my sister’s accident happened. to see this picture of where her accident happened give sme an odd sense of peace. sometimes i look at it whenever i’m missing her. thanks for covering her story with dignity.”
This comment came from a young girl’s sister whose accident story we covered in Iowa. There have been similar ones since. I never would have guessed it would possess healing qualities.
The second valuable piece to SV has been a product of “wishful thinking” by our own staff, not so much one of fact: we think that by depicting the various locations of tragic accidents, it can instill a sense of “it can happen to anywhere” in people who visit our site. The SV of a beautiful country road juxtaposed with a tragic story about loss of life that occurred in that very spot can be sobering.
Our hope is that we make people think twice, and perhaps invoke a sort-of, “Oh my God! These things don’t just happen on interstates and highways,” kinda reaction.
Thanks for offering up this article–your blog is fantastic! I’ve enjoyed reading the entries, and would be happy to have you visit our site and give us your thoughts as well!
Take care,
Justin