WIKIPEDIA.org said that Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street level views and allows users to view parts of some regions of the world at ground level. When it was launched on May 25, 2007, only five American cities were included. It has since expanded to thousands of locations in the United States, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and includes a variety of urban and rural areas.
Google Street View was first introduced in the United States on May 25, 2007, and only covered areas of the United States until July 2, 2008. As of today, images can be seen in seven countries (although parts of other countries can be seen from locations located near national borders; for example, large portions of Vatican City can be viewed from Rome's streetview). Introductions have generally occurred every 2 days to 3 months. Up until November 26, 2008, major cities (and early on, the only cities) were marked by camera icons, more of which were added each time. Then, all camera icons were discontinued in favor simply of "blue" coverage.
The United States was the first country to have Street View images and was the only country with images for over a year following introduction. Early on, most locations had a limited number of views, usually constrained to the city limits and only including major streets, and they only showed the buildings up to a certain height. Few suburbs or other nearby cities were included.
After the first few sets of introductions, image collections from cities added were more detailed, often including every side street, especially in areas closer to the center of the city. More suburbs and other nearby cities were included.
The first views anywhere outside the United States were introduced on July 2, 2008, when the Tour de France
route was added. Nineteen camera icons, each indicating part of a French city or town and Cuneo, Italy were included.
Asylum.com has the story
Check this out and see what great job that Google Street View has done ....
Street View is a feature on Google Maps that allows you to virtually roam the streets of towns to which you may never have even been. While this is useful for figuring directions, it's also turned out to be useful for finding amazing pictures of people doing stuff they should not be doing.
We've collected a few of our favorites in the gallery below. But before you laugh too hard, consider this fact: Even one of our own Asylum editors was caught on the street by the Google van. If it can happen to us, it can surely happen to you.
Have you been out on the streets doing anything you might regret?
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