Google Maps Updated To Include Cape Town
Great (and terrifying) news: Google Maps has finally been updated to include Cape Town (and, from what I understand it, the rest of South Africa).
When Google Maps was launched only a small area of Cape Town, extending from "below" about Milnerton in the north to Tokai in the South and the eastern side of Table Mountain in the west to approximately Bellville (if I remember correctly) in the east. Although this covered much of my neighbourhood and areas that I frequent, it didn't - oddly - cover the city centre, where I spend much of my day during the week and where most of the interesting places in Cape Town are to be found.
I had stopped checking months ago to see when the city might be added but, thankfully, I ran across this post at Times In New York today, indicating that Google Maps has now, finally, been updated.
Above: Cape Town, South Africa, forever immortalised in Google Maps.
So now I can zoom in to my building, and every other building, in the city, and it's all totally unnerving. It's fun when it's a city that you don't live in (I have previously lost many working hours looking up sites in London, Paris, and Las Vegas, among other areas), but it's not so much fun when it's your own city. The photos also zoom in closer than they did before (I can make out details on my house that I couldn't previously see) so it's all very 21st-century stalker creepy.
Of course, one plus to all of this is that I can blog about the city, with pictures, without having to leave the comfort of my office. Instead, I can just use the spy-satellite imagery for good, instead of for its intended purpose, whatever that is (but we know it's for evil).
Now, A Showcase To Prove My Point (Both Of Them)
Above: Rondebosch Common and the Red Cross Children's Hospital: here be creepy-crawlies and ill children.
(For more information on how you can help the hospital not run out of money visit The Children's Hospital Trust.)
Above: Sea Point Main Road (the one that's not the coastal road): here be prostitutes at night.
Above: The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront: here be German tourists (look for the people with moonbags, wearing floppy hats, shorts, and sandals in winter).
Disturbing, isn't it?
When Google Maps was launched only a small area of Cape Town, extending from "below" about Milnerton in the north to Tokai in the South and the eastern side of Table Mountain in the west to approximately Bellville (if I remember correctly) in the east. Although this covered much of my neighbourhood and areas that I frequent, it didn't - oddly - cover the city centre, where I spend much of my day during the week and where most of the interesting places in Cape Town are to be found.
I had stopped checking months ago to see when the city might be added but, thankfully, I ran across this post at Times In New York today, indicating that Google Maps has now, finally, been updated.
Above: Cape Town, South Africa, forever immortalised in Google Maps.
So now I can zoom in to my building, and every other building, in the city, and it's all totally unnerving. It's fun when it's a city that you don't live in (I have previously lost many working hours looking up sites in London, Paris, and Las Vegas, among other areas), but it's not so much fun when it's your own city. The photos also zoom in closer than they did before (I can make out details on my house that I couldn't previously see) so it's all very 21st-century stalker creepy.
Of course, one plus to all of this is that I can blog about the city, with pictures, without having to leave the comfort of my office. Instead, I can just use the spy-satellite imagery for good, instead of for its intended purpose, whatever that is (but we know it's for evil).
Now, A Showcase To Prove My Point (Both Of Them)
Above: Rondebosch Common and the Red Cross Children's Hospital: here be creepy-crawlies and ill children.
(For more information on how you can help the hospital not run out of money visit The Children's Hospital Trust.)
Above: Sea Point Main Road (the one that's not the coastal road): here be prostitutes at night.
Above: The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront: here be German tourists (look for the people with moonbags, wearing floppy hats, shorts, and sandals in winter).
Disturbing, isn't it?
Labels: Cape Town, Technology
posted by Mandy J Watson at 4:05 PM
Permanent link |
7 Comments:
The part about "floppy hats, shorts, and sandals in winter" certainly is.
Hee hee. One of my favourite games to play is Spot The Tourist.
Not much of a challenge at the V&A, though.
KN: Yeah, but it's more exciting to show an image of the V&A than St George's Mall (because you need a paragraph to explain that St George's Mall is not a mall).
FM: Excuuuse me, but those of us on a Mac didn't have access to Google Earth until recently. And those of use behind a corporate firewall (et al) aren't supposed to be installing such things anyway.
You just wanted to talk about your van...
I don't know what you're talking about, because if that's the case then Google Earth only covered a bit of Cape Town (and not the city centre) so it was just as useless as Google Maps was until recently.
Why must you always be so confusing on my blog?
Be confusing on your own blog!
(I mean, get your own blog first and then be confusing (but there, not here) okay?)
What the hell is a toffeepop? Are you making up words?
Yes, you will, because you need to bring some for me!
I've never heard of them. I've never seen them. This is all very new(s) to me. Interesting.
Post a Comment
<< Home