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Many posters on C-D make assumptions and assertions about places based on Google Street View images alone. While Street View is a useful tool and is a fun procrastination aide, it has its limits. Street View literally gives a two-dimensional representation of a neighborhood that may or may not accurately represent what that neighborhood is like in reality.
Think of a time when you looked at Google Street View before visiting an area. Upon visiting in person, did you find the area to be better or worse than your prior impressions based on Street View alone?
I have a good one. I once dismissed the neighborhood I am living in right now in Cleveland Heights because at the time I was looking to relocate while living in Portland, Or, Google Maps did not show the grocery store located just two blocks away from my present apartment in CH.
This was important to me because I don't drive and I always seek out the nearest supermarket and public transportation when apartment hunting and then check out what apartments might be available in the area. I don't know why this full service supermarket was left off the Google Street Map. It's there now.
The only reason I even bothered to look in the area is because a friend of a friend assured me a grocery store was there and there were apartments and two good bus lines. She was correct, Google was wrong.
I think people make the mistake of thinking that Google is in real-time. Google only ever drives through an area once every few years. Some areas still have images taken back in 2007-2008. Dozen of changes could have occurred in a neighborhood during that time frame.
Last edited by animatedmartian; 05-10-2015 at 11:18 AM..
I think people make the mistake of thinking that Google is in real-time. Google only ever drives through an area once every few years. Some areas still have images taken back in 2007-2008. Dozen of changes could have occurred in a neighborhood during that time frame.
This, as some neighborhoods haven't been updated in a few to several years and that has to be considered, good, bad or indifferent.
People are funny. I once had an intense conversation on CD from someone in Germany who was convinced that in Canada and the US , children did not go out and play. All because he had looked at Streetview and happened to hit a few playgrounds empty of children. The fact that it could of been a school day, was lost on him.
This is one of my favorite Street View images. It depicts a certain stereotype about Arizona that from my experience living there seems to be untrue: https://goo.gl/maps/lsefu
That's why I always say that people have to see for themselves. In my situation the grocery store had been in place for decades. A couple of years ago, they changed their appearance in the "search nearby" category. This supermarket just wasn't listed. It is now though. Maybe it missed the list. Who knows? Mistakes happen.
Street view has always given me a decent enough representation. I'm not looking at it for accuracy, only ballpark. The regular google maps tell me what businesses are in the area and these are usually highly accurate. The I do other general internet searches to see reviews or commentaries about a particular area to give me a fuller picture.
I've never been led astray by street view, but it also has never dawned on me to even think that it was the only tool to use when looking at an area. I'm reluctant to accept that the average person would think of it this way.
You mean, if I go to the actual place, highway markers and signs ae not actually blurred out?
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