Google has brought up the number of cities included in Street View to 23, with the addition of eight new cities, including: Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Providence. All of the newly added cities are in the top 150 U.S. cities by population.
Street View offers 360-degree, street-level images of city life that are so clear that you can scope out what that restaurant actually looks like, and even identify passers-by. Earlier this year, Googlers hit the streets armed with cameras, taking thousands of photos of some of the country’s biggest cities to be used in Street View. To activate the feature, simply pull up the “Street View” box on Google Maps.
Right now, the service mainly covers only certain streets and neighborhoods in the cities that Street View is available in. So suburban streets aren’t included in most cases. However, in some cities such as San Francisco, the majority of streets have been photographed.
As time goes on, every few months Google hopes to add more and more cities to their list of those included in Street View. Being from the Cleveland, Ohio area, I am hoping that we’ll be added in the next update. Afterall, while the population of Cleveland itself may be dwindling, the metropolitan area is 24th on the list of the country’s largest metro areas. So although it would only be appropriate that Cleveland were to be the 24th addition, I’m sure if we’re not added next time we will soon in the future. Google has identified their intentions to extend Street View to cities and towns of all sizes worldwide, which is a monumental task that will surely take decades.
