Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


street view

How to remove imagery from Street View

We get a few emails every week from people asking how they can get their image removed from Google Street View, so we thought we’d discuss it here. Thankfully, it’s a fairly simple process.

As you likely know, Google automatically blurs any faces or license plate numbers that appear in the imagery, as seen here:

street view blur

However, sometimes a face will be missed or you’ll have some other reason to request that an image be removed. The steps are as follows:

  1. Locate the image in Street View.
  2. Click “Report a problem” in the bottom-right of the image window.
  3. Complete the form and click “Submit”.

That’s it! They’ll review your report and take appropriate action. You can use a similar technique in Google Maps to help update the map if you see any incorrect information (misspelled street names, etc).

For more, check out the privacy section on the Google Street View website.

Exploring kudzu infestation in the US

Living in the southeast United States, I’m very familiar with the vine known as kudzu. Introduced to the US from Japan in 1876, kudzu is spreading at an amazing rate of 150,000 acres each year. Kyle Kusch at Google Sightseeing has taken advantage of Google Street View imagery to showcase some amazing examples of kudzu growth.

kudzu

Thanks to Street View’s historical imagery feature, we can look back to 2007 and see the same building with virtually no growth on it.

less kudzu

Check out Kyle’s full post for many other amazing examples of kudzu growth. As always, Google Sightseeing provides a very helpful KMZ file so you can explore those locations for yourself.

You can also read the Wikipedia article about kudzu to learn more about it and how to combat its growth.

Historical Street View imagery shows Detroit being reclaimed by nature

It was just recently that Google released their historical Street View feature, and we already have an amazing example of what can be found in there.

Using Google Street View’s historical imagery (and sometimes a bit of Bing imagery), the GooBing Detroit blog showcases some heartbreaking scenes around the city. For example, here is a series of photos from 2009-2013 on Exeter between Seven Mile and Penrose in northern Detroit.

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The blog is both incredibly amazing and shockingly sad. I encourage you to check out the full blog to see the items that Alex has assembled on the page.

(via +Mike Elgan)

More underwater maps to explore in Street View

Back in 2012, Google released some amazing underwater Street View imagery from a few areas around the world. As part of World Oceans Day last Sunday, Google has released some additional underwater Street View imagery that is equally stunning. In partnership with the Catlin Seaview Survey, you can now dive and explore some additional locations in Belize and the Philippines including the Belize Barrier Reef and Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.

belize street view

From the Google Lat Long Blog:

The Catlin Seaview Survey team has documented many underwater locales around the world using their 360-degree panoramic SVII cameras, including a growing number of UNESCO Marine World Heritage Sites. We’ll continue to add this imagery to Street View in Google Maps as it’s collected. In the spirit of World Oceans Day, the goal of this project is to expose the world to the beauty of these marine habitats, and to create a scientific baseline record so that their changing health can be monitored over time.

To learn more about these new additions, check out the full article on the Lat Long Blog or explore Google’s entire collection of underwater Street View imagery at maps.google.com/ocean.

You can also check out this article from last year that discusses some of the technical hurdles that they face when working to capture this kind of imagery.

Google releases Street View imagery for all 12 World Cup stadiums in Brazil

The 2014 World Cup is a week away, and Google has just released Street View imagery for all 12 stadiums. As you’d expect, the imagery is very sharp and looks great!

world cup stadiums in street view

In addition, Google has released imagery for the “painted streets” in Brazil:

painted streets

To go along with the new imagery in Brazil, they’ve also added fresh Street View imagery in Peru, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

You can read more about these updates on the Google Lat Long Blog, or go explore the stadiums and painted streets for yourself.