Chatroulette for Street View

October 28, 2010 7:55 AM

MapCrunch.com Google Street View Randomizer. Try the slideshow.
posted by blue_beetle (29 comments total)

Neat!
posted by Perplexity at 8:08 AM on October 28, 2010

I wonder how long it would take to find the picture of my husband and me raking our front yard?
posted by morganannie at 8:14 AM on October 28, 2010

I can get lost in these all day. Global Genie is a good one too, but you can't narrow it to countries.

Previously
posted by Tavern at 8:14 AM on October 28, 2010

Country roads the world over all look the same.
posted by notyou at 8:15 AM on October 28, 2010

I clicked the link. What I got I thought was a joke or a mistake. It's a beautifully-composed photo of some planks sitting in a green field. The horizon is near the 1/3rd mark, there's a center balance to the composition with weighted green elements on each side. I mean ... it's a really nice picture. It makes me want to be there. I thought maybe I'd passed through to Flickr or something. Oh, hey, I can grab the link. I hope that works for you. Turns out it's in the Czech Republic somewhere.

I don't think I can click refresh. That was just too beautiful and perfect.
posted by komara at 8:19 AM on October 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

Looks like that Czech scenery is the starting point.
posted by FidelDonson at 8:36 AM on October 28, 2010

I'm not sure if if I should be surprised how much small town Czechoslovakia resembles like small town Ontario; right down to the aboveground pool in the back yard.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:39 AM on October 28, 2010

Wow this is really cool, amazing how so many of them are interesting one way or another, probably 1 in 3 for me.
posted by ghharr at 8:40 AM on October 28, 2010

Like this, a beautiful day in Denmark, pretty houses, Danish flag, cyclists, a child in mid-air jumping off a wall (you can see him about to jump if you go forward in the direction of traffic.) How serendipitous.
posted by ghharr at 8:46 AM on October 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow. This is my new favorite thing.
posted by something something at 8:49 AM on October 28, 2010

I hope this isn't just ripped from Globe Genie. The only substanstive difference seems to be that this one has ads.
posted by mreleganza at 8:50 AM on October 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

I want to live here, please.
posted by theodolite at 8:54 AM on October 28, 2010

I hope this isn't just ripped from Globe Genie. The only substanstive difference seems to be that this one has ads.

This is a lot faster and has by-country selection so I'm not going to complain too much - my biggest problem with Globe Genie was that it worked by generating random lat/long coordinates until it hit one with Street View, which meant that you were about a hundred times more likely to get Rural Route 181 in Nebraska than something worth looking at.

The cities-only button is nice too.
posted by theodolite at 8:58 AM on October 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow both this and Globe Genie are really cool, thanks!
posted by ChrisHartley at 9:09 AM on October 28, 2010

I selected The Netherlands, and started clicking.Took me only 5 minutes to get a picture of a place I've been recently.

Either I'm lucky, or the Netherlands is simply too small.
posted by DreamerFi at 9:10 AM on October 28, 2010

_{--partypooper tag begin--}

this was a lot of fun, and then 30 seconds into it, but then I got really sad, because I can't do this in real life.

time to make a bucket list...

_{---end partypooper-tag --}
posted by bitteroldman at 9:16 AM on October 28, 2010

I got a pretty cool one, I think.
posted by reductiondesign at 9:19 AM on October 28, 2010

In 30 clicks (not counting three Antarctica results), I found myself looking upon country roads just shy of 2/3 of the time. It came as a reminder of just how much not-city there is out there (and I’d imagine that the Street View coverage of urban vs rural landscapes is skewed in favour of the city). Fun site.
posted by Hydrophage at 9:50 AM on October 28, 2010

This is really cool. A great way to play "where shall we go on holiday next?"
posted by ukdanae at 10:02 AM on October 28, 2010

So many roads to ease my soul!
posted by Gankmore at 10:34 AM on October 28, 2010

Nice. I found a few men sitting under a billboard selling metallic storks by the side of a road in South Africa.
posted by troubles at 10:35 AM on October 28, 2010

I love this. Thanks!
posted by defenestration at 11:29 AM on October 28, 2010

Wow, I could waste hours on this playing the game of going to random places in the US and then "driving" until I figure out where I am. First time I figured out pretty quickly that I was in either Virginia or North Carolina, and now it seems that I'm in either North Carolina or South Carolina.

I have to wonder if I'm just going to keep winding up in the Southeast somewhere...
posted by smoothvirus at 12:51 PM on October 28, 2010

Dang. Norwegian shouldn't be that hard to learn, right?
posted by theodolite at 1:01 PM on October 28, 2010

Dang. Norwegian shouldn't be that hard to learn, right?

Holy tranquility Batman, that place is stunning!
posted by ukdanae at 2:03 PM on October 28, 2010

There sure are lots of trees in the world.
posted by swift at 2:06 PM on October 28, 2010

Thanks for this. I love living in the future, and one of the best parts is streetview. I spend hours wandering around places I've visited and places I haven't, sometimes.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:49 PM on October 28, 2010

Well, typical. I just wanted somewhere nice and I got foliage all over my ...glasses?
posted by MessageInABottle at 3:39 AM on October 29, 2010

Funny Google Maps Easter Egg.
posted by morganannie at 8:41 AM on October 29, 2010