We’ve used Google Maps’ Street View (GSV) to look at our houses, our jobs, and to cyber stalk the places we used to live. I’ve seen the since-wrecked pick-up I used to own parked outside job sites with a twinge of loss. I use Street View to see what kinds of venues bands are playing at, so I don’t walk past them. It’s become a ubiquitous tool. And like all tools on the internet, it doesn’t just get used, it gets played with. Of course, this doesn’t always thrill the Great Omnipotent Google, who shut down the more questionable and violent adaptations of its data. So, we present five cool, and decidedly non-violent, non-standards uses for Google Street View.
Barcelona’s Big Time BCN
Big Time BCN is an interactive map of Barcelona that highlights the age of urban plots contrasted with the city’s architectural heritage. The darker the building, the older it is. Like many European cities, Barcelona has some 2,000 years of architectural history to visualize.
This is a big tease on our part though and has to be left off of our list, as it doesn’t (yet) incorporate Google Street View. Play with the website and the Android app in the meantime. Similarly, take a look at old Milwaukee and completely unconnected, this little stunt in a corner of Pittsburgh’s 408 Sampsonia Way from 2008.
Street View Zombie Attack
“Here’s the plan: We take the car. Go to Mum’s. Kill Phil, grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.”
First up is Mike Lacher’s Zombie Attack, from a few years ago. Poorly drawn zombies appear in your vicinity and you dodge them, to escape. Easy, right?
For best results, use this location: 39 Monson Road, New Cross, London, England. It’s not World War Z, but it’s still fun. This works best in Chrome and is buggy as hell in Firefox.
Classic Paintings In Contemporary Settings
Not really a hack or a mash up, but one of the smarter uses of GSV by Reddit user Halley Docherty for the Guardian drops classic paintings into their contemporary views, found no doubt painstakingly on Street View.
The Stonemason’s Yard (1726 – 30) by Canaletto.
The Golden Bend in the Herengracht, Amsterdam, Seen from the West (1672) by Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde.
There is also a series on 18th century paintings of London and classic album covers. The Tate Gallery has undertaken a similar, but less immersive project. For the more literate among us, there’s an inspirational poetry map by Austrian coffee-shop chain Julius Meinl. So far, it lacks the work of the Lakeland Poets, and John Betjeman’s “Slough” as well.
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!
It isn’t fit for humans now.
GeoGuessr
“Okay, I’m in … Nova Scotia? Somalia? … no, wait, Australia! I really have no idea.”
Where the heck am I? With Anton Wallén’s GeoGuessr you’re shown five different places in the world and have to plot out where you think you are on a map based on visual clues. There’s a new version, currently in beta, and a similarly named but less fun looking Android game called Where Am I by Inquisitum. If movie locations are your thing, there’s UK retailer Brighthouse’s What Film/TV Set?, which you can play to get entered to win a lovely 40″ telly. Smashing.
Post Apocalyptic Urban Jungle
Just needs burnt-out cars, stalkers, clickers and bloaters.
“You’re about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.”
Give your Street View the essential The Last Of Us or I Am Legend vibe with Einar Öberg’s Urban Jungle project. One of its tricks is to use the data like no one else, with depth to its imagery.
This experiment using an undocumented part of Street View, the depth data. With that a depth map and a normal map is generated, which can be used in the shaders and to plot geometry and sprites in (almost) the correct position in 3d space.”
Make your own 3D fun manipulating Google Street View data via GitHub. This works best in Chrome and Firefox with WebGL.
With a little cleverness and some tech know-how, Google Street View can take you to a lot more places than those on a map.
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