The Triangle in Google Maps

[ChiefJoJo]

Search an address in the Triangle. I had seen this before in larger metros... very cool!

[orulz]

This must be brand-new, just posted today.

I saw a Google Maps truck that must have been taking these images driving down Raleigh Rd in Chapel Hill one day while I was jogging. It had this crazy whirling thingamajig taking the pictures mounted on top. If I'm not crazy, I think you can see me in the images jogging on the north side of Raleigh Rd on the hill up to UNC's campus.

Alas, I swear my street is one of three halfway major (collector) streets in Raleigh that was not covered. Sigh.

[yoga]

Goodie!

[Jones_]

oh man it does intersections and shows you what streets they did on the map with the yellow line...very cool....correction...its the blue lines too...ha, you can pick up the little guy and place him anywhere and you get an instant view.....very very cool....

[DPK]

This will certainly make it easier to look at or reference sites we talk about on this forum. Gives things a whole new perspective and it's up to date, unlike the building images on the real estate website for wake county.

[ChiefJoJo]

I saw a Raleigh city council election sign in a friend's yard, and you can pick a spot (say Boylan Ave bridge) and look towards downtown and see the RBC Tower and Marriott's construction progress at the time. Judging by those, I think the photos must have been taken late last summer or early fall. One strange thing I noticed was they left out a major stretch of I-40 from 15/501 to NC 54.

[RaleighRob]

That's cute. The accuracy is a little limited though (which was already the case for google maps)...I put in my address and got a house half a block down the street. Just have to drag the view back up the street some.

Still impressive though. From the looks of my wilted yard, it seems they took the picture in late summer or early fall.

[dmccall]

I live near North Hills and believe my house was photo'd before mid June. I erected a swingset in the back yard before my little girl's birthday, and it isn't in the photo. My mow lines look nice and I'm not at home, so it must have been after 7:45 am on a M-Th. Hey, there's some tall blonde guy going in our back door, and my wife's car is at home! (just kidding)

There is a clock/thermom at Six Forks and Northbrook which reads 73 degrees, but the time of day is blurry - maybe just before 7am???

I'm just glad I wasn't out in the front yard, shirtless and picking my nose, when that truck went by!

[jfmecca]

Darn! They missed my street by a few blocks.

This will be mucho helpful... so much easier to get somewhere when you can scope out the location in advance.

[citiboi27610]

WOW! that is so crazy awesome ... i find it very impressive, just the amount of work it takes to get that volume of streets is cool

[ncwebguy]

Looking at the yard work "missinig" from the picture of my house, and the staus of RBC Plaza, I'd guess the picture was taken in August/Septemberish, and mid-morning, due to angle of the shadow of the utility pole and lack of my car on the street. It is quite addicting to play around with it to check out other streets I normally don't travel on.

It will be interesting to see how often Google updates the pictures. The satellite view seems to get updated every 2-3 years, and this seems a lot more intensive. It could be a fun tool to teach kids about reading maps, etc. when they can see where they live with such detail!

[ChiefJoJo]

One of the cool applications of this is scanning the street view for bus stops and benches. I had never get off at this location, so I got on google to find the nearest bus stop on the #6 CAT bus on Glenwood to see how far the walk would be to my destination. It would be fantastic if GoTriangle could use this somehow with their search feature.

[orulz]

GoTriangle just needs to integrate themselves into Google Transit.

[ncwebguy]

If anyone has any connections with any of the transit systems, Google's

transit feed specification and how to contact them, is posted online.

Gotriangle.org's maps are ok, but google maps have satellite view, etc.

[phoenixnc]

It's pretty cool... most cities don't get every single street covered... the ones I can think of are Manhattan. Even the rest of NYC isn't completely covered. I'm pretty impressed... it must have taken a really long time.