Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

I had to smiley face the title… I am actually really excited about this one. My first experience with Streetview was like most people’s, go to the center of New York City and peak around. But that has little use other than a cool gadget. My first real use for Streetview was this past year when my family and I were discussing a trip to Wells Beach in Maine. I have been there with my family almost every summer since I was 3 years old. I have the same attachment to the area and the place we stayed in as most people do to their cottages. This past summer we were looking to stay for only a few days which meant looking for a new place to rent. WELL! We found a great deal at $100 a night but I couldn’t – for the life of me – picture it in my head. It was then that it popped in my head… “I wonder if Google has driven these streets yet”. Sure enough it was a building I had walked past 100 times and in 20 seconds I could see it on my screen. AMAZING!

Well – now we have the same service in Canada. When you live in a large city, such as Montreal (6th largest in Canada and the US) where I am then you have a lot of reason to check Streetview out. It’s especially useful when someone is describing a location to you, now they can SHOW you :)

Are you part of the Streetview nation? You are if you live in one of these cities in Canada according to the Streetview wiki:

Prague, Mělník, Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav, Poděbrady, Říčany, Benešov, Příbram, Beroun
Quebec, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Montreal, Kitchener, Waterloo, Halifax, Mississauga, Calgary, Banff, Greater Vancouver, Surrey, Abbotsford, Chilliwack
Asahikawa, Nagoya, Gifu, Nagasaki, Hirado, Tanegashima, Yakushima, Amami Ōshima, Tokunoshima, Okinawa, Miyako Islands
More locations in United States

Have fun with it, it can be really useful and also a good time waster :)

Geek on!

I saw the Google Streetview car driving around in the spring and I remember trying like a nut to catch up to it :) Well I managed to get somewhat close and I found the picture of my black van around the Pierre-Elliot Trudeau airport in Montreal.

AWESOME!

Click the image to see the actual page!

This is too geeky :)

BUT – Geek on!

This is more of a gush post than anything. In preparation for a trip to Maine with my family, a place I have been going to every summer since I was 3 years old – Google’s Street View helps me locate a missing piece of my memory.

You see; as a family with my parents we would always stay at an apartment rental near the beach which you rent by the week. Due to budgets being a little tighter these past couple of years we were forced to try and find a place we could rent by the night. With success it is still very close to where I am used to but I couldn’t picture the building when I was talking about it with my parents.

GOOGLE MAPS! It pops into my head and off to my laptop I go. This is my first actual real reason for using Street View. I have played around with it to have a look at Central Park, San Fran and a few other things but to actually need to find a building by image so I could remember which on it was – never!

Sure enough the Google car has been down that little street that heads out to the coast and within 30 seconds I was able to exclaim – “Oh, THAT building!”.

It was also nice to take a “drive” down the street to check out all the places that my brothers and I hung around at. The arcade, the Beachcomber corner store, the beach view. I can hardly wait now!

Amazing.

Geek on!