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Argentina and Malaysia now in Street View

Argentina has just been added to Street View and there has been a significant increase in the coverage in Malaysia. Thanks to GEB reader Dave for letting us know. Earlier in the Week, the territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands were added. Thanks to GEB readers Martin and Kyle. GEB reader Dave also tells us some locations in the US have been added, including Mason and Grand Ledge, Michigan. If you know of any other areas, please let us know in the comments.

Street View Argentina and Malaysia
Street View coverage in Argentina and Malaysia.

The last major update we reported were the additions of Cambodia and Indonesia last month. Google, as far as we are aware, do not publish a list of changes, but they do have a map of the current coverage. Wikipedia maintains a useful timeline of updates.

Despite being recently released, a few locations in Argentina contain historical Street View. According to Wikipedia Google announced in September 2013 that Street View would be coming to Argentina, so it appears that the cars have been driving for the past year, as confirmed by the dates for the location below.

Buenos Aires Historical Street View
This location in Buenos Aires was photographed eight times in the last year.

Buenos Aires Historical Street View - time animation
See the seasons change in historical Street View.

Remembering 9/11 with Google Earth

We have talked about the anniversary of 9/11 a number of times in the past, including 2006, 2010, 2011 (a three part series 1 2 3), 2012 and 2013. We also followed the progress of the new World Trade Center buildings in May 2010 and May 2012.

The 3D imagery in New York is still the same as it was last year, with the ‘new’ type of 3D imagery actually showing slightly less progress on the buildings than the older type of 3D, which can be viewed by going to ‘historical imagery’. However, Historical Street View was introduced in April 2014, so we can now show you the progress of the building of the new World Trade Center using Street View.






The new World Trade Center over time in Street View.

New Street View imagery – Indonesia and Cambodia

We told you in April about Street View imagery in Cambodia around the temples of Angkor Wat. Now, Google have released imagery for much of the rest of Cambodia, as well as a significant amount in Indonesia, although the Indonesian imagery appears to be almost entirely on the islands of Java and Bali. Thanks to GEB reader IxBxTx for alerting us to the update.

According to this article Google set up a fleet of Street View cars in Indonesia, back in 2012. All the imagery I checked in both countries was dated some time in 2013, so maybe it has taken a while to process the imagery, or they had to wait for approval from local authorities. It apparently took 4 years to get approval in Greece which finally got Street View in June this year.

Street View Cambodia
Interesting transportation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Street View Indonesia
A scenic roundabout in Badung, Bali, Indonesia

Cambodia-Street-View-coverage
Street View coverage for Cambodia. Note that Thailand already had Street View.

Street-View-Indonesia-coverage
Street View coverage for Indonesia.

Using Street View cars to check for gas leaks

Most of you have heard about Google’s issues with Street View card and wi-fi sniffing. Regardless your thoughts on that, you’re bound to appreciate what the cars are now able to sniff: gas leaks.

According to an article by Trevor Mogg on Digital Trends, Google is beginning to test out cars that include methane sensors to check for gas leaks.

From the article:

The initiative turned up “thousands” of leaks from utility pipes beneath the streets, providing officials with data on pollution “that used to be invisible,” EDF’s Fred Krupp wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

Fortunately these leaks don’t pose any immediate threat to safety, and the utilities will monitor and deal with the more serious ones. However, EDF noted that such gas “has a powerful effect on the global climate, packing up to 120 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.”

Here is an early map that has been generated by this new data:

street view methane sniffing

It’s a great idea, and hopefully it will be added to additional cars over time. There’s seemingly quite a few other pieces of data that could be useful to measure when you have an army of GPS-tracked cars driving around; weather data, road quality, etc. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes in the future.

Be sure to check out the full article on the Digital Trends website.