Today we are looking at progress made by Street View in 2016. The map below shows not just changes to Street View but also some other changes Google has made to Google maps over the course of the year. Subtle changes in the fonts results in much of the text being highlighted. In some cases labels have been moved or removed or added (usually this just means a change to what zoom level they appear at). There are also changes to the coastline of northern Greenland and more minor changes to coastlines and water bodies worldwide. Google has increased the promotion of user contributed views which resulted in blue dots being shown on the map even when zoomed out. In the past, one could only see them when zoomed in quite a long way. Sadly user contributed views still do not work in Google Earth. The blue dots are shown but you cannot view the imagery.
The map does not track updates to Street View where there was already existing Street View.
Changes to the Street View map over 2016. Blue: previously existing Street View, Red: changes to the map including Street View.
Large version
The main new recipients of Street View were:
Albania and Montenegro in November
Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands in December
Bangladesh, Mongolia, the Philippines, Indonesia Thailand, and Bolivia saw significant increases in coverage.
A map in Street View on RĂ©union. See in Street View
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.
Awesome. Am looking forward to Malta Street View in 2017.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/business/technology/69641/google_street_view_cars_driving_maltas_roads_from_19_september
Hi Tim, to help with highlighting just the street view coverage layer changes, try grabbing the tiles using an empty base map. You can make an invisible base map using the style wizard at https://mapstyle.withgoogle.com/
Of course, we’d want the ‘difference map’ layered back on top of a normal base map for posting! could also be made into KML using a transparent PNG.
As usual per the trend Google focuses on third world nations instead of updating existing ones. đŸ˜›
Google is a communist company and has heavily *donated* towards such causes. They are no longer the small company they once were ran by people who care.
I hardly ever use Google anymore.