Does Google Have a Picture of your home?

[vangogh]

It's actually really useful. I use Google Maps a lot more since they added it. It can be a little creepy if you think about their vans driving around taking pictures, but as long as they stay off private roads and keep the people out of the pictures it's really not a big deal.

[lav]

There would have to be 100's or more of these googlemobiles driving around to get that many pics. It would be a good job for people who like to travel and see new places (absolutely every possible place).....

"What do you do for a living?"

"Ahhh I drive a googlemobile"

I have thought about putting a massive sign on our building roof for google earth but I noticed that the image they have is from back in 2004. Does anyone know how often they update their satellite images?

[vangogh]

I think they primarily pay college students something like $10/hr to drive around. They do pay a lot of people to collect the images.

People have decorated their roofs with advertising for Google. I remember seeing some examples of it awhile back.

[billbenson]

I forget if it was said earlier in this thread, but they don't seem to be giving exact addresses. Put in your address and they show the house down the street.

They aren't doing the UK, but are doing Australia. Curious?

[pete]

No more skinny dippin' in the hot tub?
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[vangogh]

Bill I noticed that too. They generally seem close on the address, but often they're a few houses up the road.

Pete just check for vans with cameras strapped on top before getting in the hot tub. Unless you're not shy, in which case the van check is less important.

[KristineS]

I hadn't thought of that. Not that I'm known for skinny dipping in the hot tub, or even have a hot tub for that matter, but it is kind of creepy to think that you could be captured doing whatever it is you're doing when Google comes by.

Of course, my town is pretty small, so it will probably be one of the last to be recorded.

[vangogh]

Some embarrassing pictures have apparently made it online. No skinny dipping that I'm aware of. If you let Google know they remove the images, but still someone has to see them in order to know to ask to have them removed.

[pete]

Civilian GPS is not exactly accurate. I sold vehicle tracking systems to fleets and found that a truck parked overnight and it's location recorded every few minutes would appear to move nearly a city block while actually parked with the keys removed. So yes. a couple of houses off is normal. Or the other side of the street, etc.
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[cbscreative]

Good point, pete, and the accuracy of military GPS is classified.

For all the tech junkies here interested in trivia, one of the main elements of GPS was invented in the 1940's, but had no practical use until GPS was invented. The atomic clock can accurately measure time in billionths of a second. So the atomic clock was a cool toy that didn't impact society for decades because no one really needed that kind of accuracy.

Then along comes GPS. No matter where you are on this planet, you are in view of at least 3 GPS satellites. These satellites can triangulate your position by measuring the response time of a beam using an atomic clock. Now, being able to accurately measure in billionths of a second has a practical use.

Now if Google can bring us this new toy, imagine what our government is capable of. Smile.