World Where's Waldo

April 16, 2008 3:30 PM

NPR article on World Where's Waldo Link to the website A Canadian woman made a giant waldo and put it on top of her house and is waiting for the google earth satellites to pick him up.
posted by majikstreet (14 comments total)

I always wanted to write a "Where's Ralph Waldo?" spoof for all those precocious 3rd grade transcendentalists.
posted by ornate insect at 3:33 PM on April 16, 2008

I always wanted to write a "Where's Ralph Waldo?" spoof for all those precocious 3rd grade transcendentalists.

There he is!
posted by danb at 3:58 PM on April 16, 2008

Hold on a minute ... I live in Vancouver -> where the hell is Bryant Park?

Thought I knew all the parks in this city.
posted by mannequito at 4:13 PM on April 16, 2008

Seems more like Waiting for Godot... How often does Google update its sat imagery, especially outside the US? The Vancouver satellite content is easily two years old as it is.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:20 PM on April 16, 2008

Hold on a minute ... I live in Vancouver -> where the hell is Bryant Park?

It's on the low end of your radio dial.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:25 PM on April 16, 2008

Bryant Park is merely the name of the project.

She recently made a 2,300-square-foot Waldo and put him on a roof in Vancouver.
posted by porpoise at 4:25 PM on April 16, 2008

The whole Google Earth thing seems a little silly, given the long update time, and the fact that she couldn't resist posting an aerial photo on her blog. People have already found him.
posted by ssg at 4:29 PM on April 16, 2008

People have already found him.

I think that should be her cue to fold Waldo up and mail him to a random stranger to re-display, like turning the page for the next "where's Waldo" picture.
posted by p3t3 at 4:37 PM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Beyond Robson (the blog ssg linked to) occasionally had a feature called "Crossroad", in which they would post a screenshot from google maps and you had to identify the location. If it happens to be somewhere you live, it's dead easy. But even so there are often clues. There are only so many 4-lane streets in Vancouver, for example, and very few big box stores, and only a few places with tall apartment towers, etc.

Here, go play. But don't read the comments, they always have the answer right away.
posted by PercussivePaul at 4:59 PM on April 16, 2008

Note to to self: Google doesn't own any satellites, and often their data is years out of date. Find out if it is easier to hack the Google through other means.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:39 PM on April 16, 2008

I always thought a good website would be a real world Wheres Waldo where people take pictures of people dressed up as Waldo in locations such as Times Square or Grand Central Station places like that. And I had thought this was it, but I guess I'll have to wait.
posted by lilkeith07 at 6:30 PM on April 16, 2008

Vancouver has been updated at least once as the last set of photos was taken during the Molson Indy race event. It took me some time to figure out why so many of the downtown streets were empty.

That being said, I've saved a picture of Stanley Park, waiting for an update to get an idea of the devastation from a massive wind storm over a year ago. I wouldn't be surprised though if Google took its sweet time with an update.

Also, the media should really do a better job at fact checking. There is no Google satellite.
posted by futureproof at 12:04 AM on April 17, 2008

If I did this, I'd still be waiting as the view of my flat is at least 2 years out of date.
posted by drezdn at 5:46 AM on April 17, 2008

Here's Waldo.
posted by schmedeman at 10:17 AM on April 17, 2008