Tag: Street View

Online Maps Roundup: July 2026

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Google Maps users in New Zealand will get a voice that “speaks English with a Kiwi accent while accurately pronouncing te reo Māori (the Māori language) place names.”

Street View imagery has been refreshed in Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

TechCrunch reports on the restrictions Apple is placing on upcoming ads in Apple Maps (previously). Beyond the usual panoply of sensitive, deceptive or illegal categories, Apple is banning ads for home services—locksmiths, plumbers, general contractors etc. Oliver Roick thinks he knows why:

If ads must appear on Apple Maps, they should be limited to businesses that operate from a shop or office I can physically visit. It avoids cluttering the map and is the right choice for user experience. If I’m looking for a plumber to fix a leak in my house, I won’t use a maps application; I’ll use a search engine. I need the plumber to come to my house; where they are and how I can get there isn’t relevant.

Considering that scammy locksmith ads on Google Maps have been a thing for years, I’m not remotely surprised that Apple’s taking this step.

Online Maps Roundup: June 2026

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Apple’s operating system upgrades this year seem to be focusing on scores of small improvements along with a ton of AI integrations so it’s no surprise that announced upgrades to Apple Maps in iOS/iPadOS/macOS 27 are in that vein: small improvements, plus AI integration (e.g. enhanced Flyover imagery). Details at Cult of Mac and Mac Observer, among others.

Google has added the country of Georgia to Street View. This was a partnership with the Georgian government, so it’s no shock that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not part of the package.

Strava is adding new hiking features and improved maps.

Minnesota’s Unmappable City

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The wealthy enclave of North Oaks, Minnesota got itself removed from Google Maps Street View 2008 and has stayed invisible to the service since then, thanks to the fact that the entire city of 5,272 residents, a former gated community, is private property—the property lines end at the middle of the street, so there is no public property per se, and driving the streets is considered trespassing.

Chris Parr decided to get North Oaks onto Street View anyway. Taking advantage of the fact that property rights don’t extend into the airspace above the property, he got a drone licence, collected some aerial imagery, and uploaded said imagery to Street View. Where it lasted for approximately three whole days before it was taken down, because it’s not like Chris was going to succeed where Google failed. As the 404 Media report notes: “Parr’s experiment and documentary raises questions, of course, about who gets to have privacy in America. A wealthy enclave has set up the legal and surveillance infrastructure to be able to prevent being mapped. The rest of us, meanwhile, are subject to all sorts of surveillance by our neighbors and law enforcement.” (See, for example, the cameras at every entry road enforcing North Oaks’ privacy.)

To be clear, this is specifically about Street View (and Apple’s Look Around, same deal). North Oaks is on the map on every platform. It’s not blurred in satellite imagery. It’s not a naval base or a nuclear facility, just an immensely privileged neighbourhood that wants to keep even the virtual riff-raff away.

Some Asian Updates to Online Maps

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Google has announced that Street View imagery is now available for Nepal.

Meanwhile, Apple observers are reporting that cycling directions are rolling out for Hong Kong and Taiwan in Apple Maps (AppleInsider, MacRumors).

Update, 22 Aug: And Singapore gets the Detailed City Maps treatment in Apple Maps.

Google Maps Has a Lot of User-Contributed Imagery in the Wrong Places

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Geography Now was poking around northern Chad in Google Maps and came across a bunch of user-contributed 360-degree images of business interiors that had nothing to do with Chad: they were associated with businesses in Brazil, India, Hungary and so forth. I’m inclined to think these were geocoding glitches or user errors, since the Gulf of Guinea (home of Null Island) seems to have a particularly bountiful crop of them, but I’m spotting shop and schoolroom interiors in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean too.

Did Street View Just Help Solve a Murder Investigation in Spain?

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Google Street View (screenshot)

A Street View car passing through the tiny Spanish village of Tajueco captured images of what sure looked like a man loading (or unloading) a wrapped body from the trunk of a car. The images helped authorities solve an outstanding missing person case: remains were discovered earlier this month, and two people have been arrested. News coverage: BBC, El País, New York Times, The Times. Given that it had been 15 years since the last time a Street View car passed through Tajueco, which has maybe 50 inhabitants, doing a shoulder-check for camera-equipped cars was likely not in the forefront of the perpetrators’ minds. (Current screenshot above: the man has since been blurred for obvious reasons.) [Gizmodo, PetaPixel, The Verge]

Some Google Maps Updates

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Google Maps imagery updates include improved satellite imagery thanks to an AI model that removes clouds, shadows and haze, plus “one of the biggest updates to Street View yet, with new imagery in almost 80 countries—some of which will have Street View imagery for the very first time.” The web version of Google Earth will be updated with access to more historical imagery and better project and file organization, plus a new abstract basemap layer. [PetaPixel]

Meanwhile, The Verge reports that Google Maps is cracking down on business pages that violate its policy against fake ratings and reviews.

Report: Google to Shut Down Standalone Street View App

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Street View app iconAccording to 9to5Google, Google looks like it’s getting ready to shut down its standalone Street View app (previously). “This standalone app served two distinct groups of people—those who wanted to deeply browse Street View and those who wanted to contribute their own 360° imagery. Considering the more popular Google Maps app has Street View support and Google offers a ‘Street View Studio’ web app for contributors, it should be no surprise to learn that the company is now preparing to shut down the Street View app.” If their report is correct, the shutdown would take place next March. [The Verge]

Google Street View at 15

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Google is marking the 15th anniversary of Street View. In a blog post, they preview their next camera, which weighs less than 15 pounds and doesn’t require complex equipment or a specialized car mount. They’re also making their historical Street View imagery (historical in the sense of not current: it only goes back 15 years at most) available via the Google Maps Android and iOS apps. More: 9to5Google, TechCrunch.

Google Street View App Enables User-Uploaded Photos

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Google announced earlier this month that their updated Street View app for Android—as an Apple user I had no idea that Street View was a separate app on Android—now supports user-contributed photos to Street View. “After you record your images and publish them via the Street View app, we automatically rotate, position and create a series of connected photos. We then place those connected images in the right place on Google Maps, so your new Street View can be found in the exact location where it was taken for others to see and explore.” The idea is to supplement Google’s imagery where it’s thin on the ground. This beta feature requires an ARCore-compatible Android device and is only available in a few areas for now: Toronto, New York, and Austin TX (presumably for testing purposes), as well as Costa Rica, Indonesia and Nigeria.

Google Removing Uluru Street View Images

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Google has agreed to Parks Australia’s request that user photos taken from the summit of Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) be removed from Street View; climbing Uluru, which is owned by and sacred to the Pitjantjatjara people, has been prohibited since 2019. ABC Australia, CNN. As of this writing a couple of images are still visible. Aerial coverage is unaffected. [Boing Boing]

Google Maps and Privacy

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Incognito mode for Google Maps, announced last May, is currently in testing. With the mode enabled, user activity isn’t saved to the user’s Google account. It was made available last week to beta testers using the preview version of the Google Maps Android app.

Meanwhile, Strange Maps looks at the curious lack of Google Street View in Germany and Austria, where privacy concerns are paramount.

Using Street View to Spot Gentrification

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

CBC News: “A group of researchers at the University of Ottawa is using Google Street View to spot instances of gentrification in the city’s neighbourhoods. […] The program looks for patterns of improvements on individual properties, such as new fences, landscaping, siding or significant renovations.” Honestly not something for which I expected Street View to have a use.

Where Apple Maps and Google Street View Will Be Driving (or Walking) Next

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Apple now has a fleet of cars collecting data for Apple Maps. Since they’ve been making a point about consumer privacy lately, this page lists where their cars are going to be in the coming weeks. (AppleInsider notes that some of that data collection is pedestrian-based.) It turns out Google has a page for Street View data collection that includes similar information, though it’s far less granular: windows of several months, whereas Apple tells you where it’ll be within a two-week timeframe.