Google Street View - do you think it's great service?

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SupFanat
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Google Street View - do you think it's great service?

Post by SupFanat »

Very good for many countries, but unfortunately almost no coverage of Germany at the moment, despite the fact that there was a lawsuit and Google won it. :(
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Post by Benvolio »

If google won their lawsuit, then why do about 1 in 4 German buildings have their images blurred out on StreetView??

Coverage in Ireland is excellent, with meticulous high quality imagery of pretty much every square inch of the island, even roads with grass growing in the centre which carry three tractors a day.

Meanwhile, places like America which were imaged first suffer from horrendous quality imagery and could really do with a second pass.

StreetView is entertaining during exam times when the brain will happily settle for the most mundane mental chewing gum, but it also serves a genuine purpose in activities such as house-hunting and holiday planning.
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Post by SupFanat »

The problem is not the fact that some buildings are blurred.
The problem is much worse - The most of Germany isn't covered at all!
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Roobar
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Post by Roobar »

It's amazing to me how Germany, a top economy country, the world cup winner, one of the most green countries of the world, got the worst internet and has little to no coverage of their streets.

Anyway, I've "been" in Berlin and there is quite nice.
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Post by SupFanat »

Germany seems to have Internet up to 12,5 MB/s. Something about 40 GB per hour. Is this too bad?
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Roobar
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Post by Roobar »

Are you sure you don't mean 12.5 Mbps? Because that's pretty slow.

"Speed test results for 2013 showed an average of 8.90 Mbps download and 2.65 Mbps"

Also, according to wikipedia, your internet is not only slow, but too expensive.
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Post by SupFanat »

I mean "up to 100 megabits per second" which is the same that 12,5 megabytes per second. But I use only very slow connection - "6 megabits". Hovewer once I reached "10 megabits" on this connection. Probably the network wasn't tasked very much.
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Post by Commander Spleen »

I'm still experiencing future shock that speeds over a megabyte per second can be considered slow.
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Post by Roobar »

We are talking about wired internet, not mobile connectivity. For 4G, 12.5 mbps is actually quite a decent speed that I think is rarely or never actually achieved, except maybe in Japan and South Korea.
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

Wait so Mb is a megabyte now? I thought that was megabits, and in order to be a Megabyte it must be MB with a capital B. Have megabits been downgraded to mbs now?
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Post by lemm »

I don't think that I've ever had a practical use for Google Street View, although I did spot myself in a picture once!
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Post by tulip »

A) Google street view is awesome if you are looking for a flat and you decide if it's worth it to even visit it.
B) Google street view is awesome if you don't have a navi and want to drive somewhere for the first time, I tend to look at street view of the some of the junctions to be able to tell when I see it for real that it's the right one
C) Googe street view has been disabled in many Cities in Germany since it is one of the last countries in the world that values privacy. But sooner or later that obsolete trait will be abolished for the good of ultimate market research data.
D) Internet in Germany is not bad or slow, it is just overpriced. But I have experienced a lot worse internet in other countries. Btw everything that is sold via contract is overpriced in germany, and you got ridiculously long running times of contracts. Because germans need to feel safe, and they don't if their minimum runtime of their cell or internet contract is below 24 months it seems.
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Post by Roobar »

lemm wrote:I don't think that I've ever had a practical use for Google Street View, although I did spot myself in a picture once!
Oh I have a lot. For example, if I need to go to a store I've never been, I run street view to see where exactly it is. Or if I need to see a number of an entrance of a building. Or when I have to go to a place I've never been, I explore it a bit, so when I arrive there, I'll be better prepared and it will feel familiar, so I would not waste time to find the exact place where I need to go.

Also, not much practical, but it gave me a chance to explore so many places in the world I otherwise would never see! It also spared me time for visiting places that firstly I wanted to go, but after exploring them with the street view, I decided against.

So it's surprising that you don't find this practical.
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Post by Commander Spleen »

Street View is great for planning jumping castle deliveries. Especially in terrible suburban estates where you need to improvise to gain access to the back yard.
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Post by SupFanat »

If I would decide about it...
...the blurring of faces and license plates would be never irreversible. Because this damned auto blur also blurs some road signs.

Too bad I can't declare the EU requirement "to delete raw photos of Street View after 6/12 months as void. I would certainly, if I only had the possibility to...
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