How Does Google Earth and Google Streetview Work?

So I noticed with Google Earth I can see pictures of where I live from a short distance away; does this mean someone has to have taken pictures of where I live and entered them into the Google Earth system or something, or can the satellite somehow see this...? From my understanding, satellites can only look straight down, so if someone must take pictures, well I mean who goes around taking such pictures of everyone's home?

Im not too sure how it works but as far as pictures, Ive seen a "mapping van" on the road before. Basically its this van with cameras mounted on it and it pretty much just drives around taking different roads and filming them. Im sure the van's location is hooked up to some decent GPS computers keeping track of where it is, and everywhere its been, then puts all the info gathered together and comes out with the maps. If you look at the Google maps "street view" the pics are always from an angle in the middle of the road, somewhat validating that they were taken from a moving vehicle...

 

Im sure someone else here knows more than myself on this though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View

Google Earth is a product offered by Google after their acquisition of Keyhole Incorporated. Keyhole was a geospatial visualization company originally funded by Sony, Nvidia, and In-Q-Tel (CIA's venture capital component.)

 

Google Earth works by combining satellite imagery with aerial photography, elevation data, and street vectors. So you search for something, it searches the database for the same vectors, there you are.

 

Microsoft Live view, or whatever its called is different, because Microsoft Live view utilizes aerial photos only.

 

Google Earth streetview uses customized camera set ups to record panoramic images of wherever the car has traveled, logging data points as it travels.

I believe the images are all 2 years or older.

big brother

A car does the street view - I saw one three weeks ago.

Satellites provide aerial photos to a point then they are aerial shots taken from a plane and stitched together.

 

 

big brother

how is it "big brother"? Its a PRIVATE company taking photographs of PUBLIC places.

Google Earth is primitive compared to what our satellites can actually do. Scary stuff.

big brother

 

We have a winner!

how is it "big brother"? Its a PRIVATE company taking photographs of PUBLIC places.

 

GOOG is public, but you can always request to have street view removed if you have privacy concerns. They are really quick with that even though it's all public locations. I believe an entire city even requested removal and they complied. "Big brother" has a lot more advanced resources than google.

The only way it can be "Big Brother"-ish I think is in how Google has such unique information on so many people. I mean I can tell you if you looked at the entire record of my Google searches, you'd learn a LOT about me. I don't think the government has anything like that on soo many people. But they don't have access to Google's database of searches (every search you make, Google records), at least not in the way they'd like.

 

I have always found it odd/ironic that a company that knows tons of information about everyone has for it's corporate phrase, "Dont be evil"

 

BTW, for the tin-foil crowd, there was an article recently that if the government can actually read your brain waves, that wearing a tinfoil hat actually will help them with this, not hinder them in it

BTW, for the tin-foil crowd, there was an article recently that if the government can actually read your brain waves, that wearing a tinfoil hat actually will help them with this, not hinder them in it

I knew it.

I passed it the other day I'm waiting for me to show up

 

 

GBGallardo, that may not necessarily be a Google car, unless it said so somewhere. I once passed a similar car with a camera that had some navigation company's name on it.

 

And Wheels, have you tried, uhmm, googling your question?

The only way it can be "Big Brother"-ish I think is in how Google has such unique information on so many people. I mean I can tell you if you looked at the entire record of my Google searches, you'd learn a LOT about me. I don't think the government has anything like that on soo many people. But they don't have access to Google's database of searches (every search you make, Google records), at least not in the way they'd like.

And of course, the answer to this is "If Privacy is your #1 priority, DONT USE GOOGLE."

 

There are other search engines out there that are marketing on this issue, that they DONT save your searches etc....

 

However Google is still #1 by a mile.... (which means most people prioritize something ELSE higher than privacy...Like FINDING WHAT THEYRE LOOKING FOR WHEN THEY NEED IT).

 

GBGallardo, that may not necessarily be a Google car, unless it said so somewhere. I once passed a similar car with a camera that had some navigation company's name on it.

 

And Wheels, have you tried, uhmm, googling your question?

The magnet on the driver door had Google's logo

Google Earth is primitive compared to what our satellites can actually do. Scary stuff.

"From an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,000 m), it could survey 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) per hour of the Earth's surface. In addition, it was accurate enough to take a legible picture of a car's license plate from this altitude."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71_Blackbird

 

So, this was ~40 years ago, you can only imagine what they have today. EVERYTHING.

"From an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,000 m), it could survey 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) per hour of the Earth's surface. In addition, it was accurate enough to take a legible picture of a car's license plate from this altitude."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71_Blackbird

 

So, this was ~40 years ago, you can only imagine what they have today. EVERYTHING.

^^ are there any pics on the net of the actual footage taken from the SR71 at 80,000ft?

"So, this was ~40 years ago, you can only imagine what they have today. EVERYTHING"

The US is scanned twice a month by the US, (at least it was when I worked in the imagery business) and the government system works with overlays, (layering) and yes details and information are very concise...I think a european company was doing detail imaging for the common folk to purchase, unless that has been classified as well..the public is only exposed to a small percentage of what is really out there...

And of course, the answer to this is "If Privacy is your #1 priority, DONT USE GOOGLE."

 

Yes I know, I have lots of things I like to look up though, none of it is private though (per se ).

 

There are other search engines out there that are marketing on this issue, that they DONT save your searches etc....

 

Wasn't aware of that, will have to check some of them out.

 

However Google is still #1 by a mile.... (which means most people prioritize something ELSE higher than privacy...Like FINDING WHAT THEYRE LOOKING FOR WHEN THEY NEED IT).

 

Yup.

 

I think this is a huge invasion of privacy. It is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

^^ are there any pics on the net of the actual footage taken from the SR71 at 80,000ft?

 

Most of them are still classified.... Especially the "good" ones.

 

The third picture of the "antitank gun" gives an idea of the capabilities.