2014 saw several new countries added to Street View, including Greece in June, Serbia in July, Indonesia and Cambodia in August, and Argentina in September. For a comprehensive timeline of Street View coverage see the Wikipedia page.
2014 also saw expansion of Street View coverage within countries, and greatly increased use of the Street View Trekker, with coverage of landmarks like the Pyramids of Egypt, national parks, beaches, coastal areas captured by boat, underwater locations, and buildings. For a tour of iconic places where the trekker has been used, see here.
A map of Street View coverage can be found here. Thank you to GEB reader Lynne for letting us know about this.
The most significant development in Street View, however, was the introduction of the ‘Historical Street View’ feature in April. This feature is only available in the Google Maps version of Street View and not in Google Earth.
Also of great importance are the contributions to Street view by individuals via Photosphere, as this provides coverage in places where Google has not yet sent its cars or trekker, or of events, such as the protests in Hong Kong.
Shirito Falls, Mt.Fuji, Japan. Captured with the Street View Trekker.
Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Captured with the Street View Trekker.
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
The progress in very welcome, but it would be even more impressive if Google took not of feedback and cleared up the serious issue of GE crashing whenever SV is entered in parts of London, New York and other cities, apparently where there have been 3D imagery updates – see a series of comments on this blog.
It is also worth checking the comments on the 25 November post where the link to the map of global SV coverage was first provided, although the placemarks on the map remain a mystery – no key, and they are not places with 3D imagery.
Since when has Google ever cared about feedback? Or any major internet company for that matter?
Though half the time the smart people like you who know how to address their point without childish tantrums get drowned out by those who scream *F-you* over stuff that they don’t like so in a way I can see Google and other companies not taking complaints very seriously since most users don’t take themselves very seriously.
As the old saying goes “Look into you’re own mirror before criticizing” which I have learned.
Holy cow! As soon as I made my first reply the comment form went totally bonkers only half showing!
There is a Spelling mistake.
“2104 saw several new countries added to Street View”
Thank you. I have fixed it.
First: Many places, especially those from inside buildings, squares, parks, mountains, etc.does not become highlighted in blue in Google Earth and you’ll have to hit blindly Pegman in place which is accessible Street View, but Google Maps easily lights up blue line and is then facilitated the transition to a view of the street.
Second: get finally of the new street view images in Bulgaria! Most pics there are a 90% images taken in the winter and the streets are ugly, bleak, bare trees, mud, snow melt!It’s all looks nasty! For the third time you do images in Poland, but Bulgaria only once! Nice photos taken in the spring is very little, a some street in Plovdiv and Sofia,recently appeared spherical images from the mountains, seven lakes etc., and found out about it from the Bulgarian portal, and you websites is silence about it! The pictures are very nice, because it made spring or summer.
Third: Why historical imagery Street View is only available in Google Maps, and
Google Earth has not yet?
Fourth: As a dude mentioned above, naprawcie finally crashes Google Earthat transition to Street View, New York, Sydney, San Francisco, London and so on.
Fifth, when you do more photos 3D Buildings in Europe? There is a lack of in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, etc.
Sixthly: Is there any chance to make at least some pictures Street View in dangerous places such as Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc.? Will there be photos from communist countries, eg. Cuba, China, North Korea, Belarus etc.? Will there be a Street View more Islamic states, eg. Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, etc.? Will they also pictures from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, etc.?
We all hope that the people who run Google Earth read users’ comments such as yours in this blog and give serious consideration to them, but, as explained in the ‘About’ section, Google Earth Blog is not officially affiliated to Google, and, as far as I understand, cannot implement any changes to Google Earth.
On your sixth point there are many additional photographs in the ‘All Panoramio photos’ layer (I think this is a default layer) often giving a good impression of those places where there is no Street View and the cars are not likely to visit any time soon.
Looks like they will be driving to Laos soon
http://thenextweb.com/asia/2014/07/24/googles-street-view-service-expands-asia-cars-hit-road-capturing-images-laos/
This will be the first time they enter a communist country, and with regard to islamic countries, they recently added the UAE and Bangladesh, so I guess they are making progress
What happened to the residential street view you had when you could touch the little red pinpoint icon and sees certain structure at eye level like you were standing there ?
2014 also saw the eruption of the erroneous blurrings caused by privacy algorithms all over the imagery.
More information in this forum:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/maps/maps-street-view/y-R6cJxKu6w
I have heard Google is planning to shut down Google Earth this year so I am not surprised at the lack of development. Google has gone completely commercialized ever since they got into the *ad sense* business and as a result their search engine has gone to hell in a handbasket.
Like I said in my other post those who are formal about their complaints get drowned out by the cussing and swearing going on over little things that Google probably doesn’t even LOOK at the complaint lists let along respond.
In my opinion Google should shut down their own forums if they are going to do their *spring cleaning* as they call it as it has become a *useless* feature largely ignored as a joke. Google seems to care more about social networking aka Facebook then being unique.