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January 25, 2012
Google Earth 6 now required for Street View
When Google Earth 6.0 was released, it completely changed the way that Street View worked. However, Google kept the older layer active for previous versions of Google Earth so that those users could continue to use Street View. Not anymore.
Sometime in the past few weeks, Google has turned off that old layer. If you're wanting to use Street View in Google Earth, you're now required to be using version 6.0 or higher.
Here's a quick look at how to use Street View in Google Earth 6:
In addition to that video, I've built a few other Google Earth tutorials to help explain some features, including how to use historical imagery, elevation profiles and a few more.
Beyond that, Google has just released Street View imagery in South Korea, primarily in Seoul and Busan. As you can see from the screen shot below, the imagery in those is very sharp.
You can read more about the new South Korean Street View imagery on the Google Lat Long Blog.
If you still need to upgrade to Google Earth 6 to get the new Street View features, you can always download it (for free!) from earth.google.com.
Posted by mickmel at January 25, 2012 8:28 AM
Comments
Posted by: Chris at January 25, 2012 11:14 AM
Street view is now in HD for much of Buffalo, NY.
Precisely:
Everything south of the Scajaquada expressway - and some to its north Everything west of the Kensington Expressay (also some to the east of in its northern part.)
The southern part of the East Side (Genesee, Broadway, Sycamore and side streets).
Bailey and Deleware Ave almost entirely
Niagara Falls Blvd. All expressways.
Much of rural Western New York is already in HD. North Buffalo and the suburbs of Buffalo rest in SD.
Posted by: Buff A Low at January 25, 2012 11:40 AM
@ Buff A Low - is the HD coverage a default or is there the option of a switch between standard and HD? No sign of an option when I looked from outside the US.
The quality of the SV images in Buffalo is certainly now better than many places elsewhere in the US, but comparable, say, to recently released (HD?) imagery in Belgium.
Posted by: Chris at January 25, 2012 12:26 PM
@Chris, there is no way to change the image in Street View. There is only the 'default' view.
Google is in the process of updating the fuzzy old imagery of their original camera cars to the newest ones. Some of the California imagery was changed in the last update as well. The Buffalo imagery is with the newest camera too.
Because the newer cameras are even better than the middle-generation HD cameras, they're slowly working to upgrade all of our older imagery. Other countries will begin to see the new HD cameras too. (I believe most of Belgium, if not all of it, was done with the middle-generation HD camera)
Posted by: Munden at January 25, 2012 12:38 PM
@ Munden - thanks. Do you know of any public source giving the distribution and progress of updates to existing SV coverage, other than the general list of where camera cars are active?
Posted by: Chris at January 25, 2012 5:32 PM
Thanks a lot Google!!! Take something that was perfect and broke it!! I want street view back in the older versions!!!
Posted by: Tom at January 28, 2012 1:08 PM
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Sad that Street View has gone for those with older but still fully functioning operating system, but clearly Google is a commercial outfit.
But good to see another country added to Street View - wirescapes and advertising signs dominate sample views of Korea so far - and when we get Street View north of the 38th parallel we will know that Google is truly global :-)