Friday, September 16, 2005

Return on our investment (or "In which we finally get to play with the CIA's old toys")

So, am I alone in getting a huge kick out of all the satellite images now offered by our favorite internet map sites? I mean, who knew Dick Cheney's house looks like a big blob when viewed from above (maybe they used a little too much TNT when they were building those post-9/11 bunkers)?

But I have to say that Amazon's A9 Maps goes a little too far in its offering street level photos. Being able to see rooftops and cars and such is one thing, but A9 offers candid stills of poor schmucks unlucky enough to have been caught in the sights of Jeff Bezos' cameraman. To see what I'm talking about, check out this shot of a few diners at Geno's one afternoon.

4 comments:

Elle Woods said...

Perhaps the real question is: who is going to win the online maps/satellite images war?

Regardless, I think this is all awesome. However, I'm sad that my parents house in little ole WV doesn't have any accompanying street images.

Anonymous said...

This is disturbing. A search on both my address and my mother's address produced photos of buildings within one block. So much for privacy...

Anonymous said...

No one eating at Geno's can be called unlucky. Now, if they had been captured for posterity eating at Pat's...

Anonymous said...

Dude, My house isn't there! I'm so sad :(