First, here’s the obligatory Harbour Bridge & Opera House shot.

Now, Google has introduced it’s Street View imagery for Australia.  And when I say Australia I mean all of Australia

Except Darwin.  Sorry Mum & Dad, no street view for you.

Those blue lines are roads where street view is available.  This means that some poor guy had to drive all the way across the Nullarbor in one of the camera cars.

Anyway it is quite amazing, privacy complaints notwithstanding, how much detail you can see.  Here’s the Esplanade at Manly Beach, where you can see the blurring effect (actually you can see it being a little over-zealous, it’s blurred the traffic light too!) .  Here’s the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the ANZAC statue on the ANZAC Bridge, looking back down Leura Mall or down the main street of Beechworth. 

It’s a bit of a pity that it was overcast on the days when the shot a lot of the Sydney imagery, but this is very cool.  It’s a game changer for real-estate too.  The real estate agent hasn’t got a shot of the outside of the house?  Doesn’t matter, you can probably look it up.  Trying to find a location, now maps can not only give you the directions, but show you what the place looks like too.

This was actually quite handy today. I needed to find a factory to pick up a new trampoline mat & thanks to Google Maps, not only could I find how to get there, I knew what the building looked like when I was looking for the street.

The Google Australia blog has more details and a video about the new release.  So go check it out.