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Google Maps Offers Mind-Blowing Street View -- It's Like Walking Around Virtually in a City

by Tom Johnson on May 31, 2007
categories: technical-writing

Google Maps now offers a street view to major cities on their maps. It's like there are 360 degree web cams set up all over major cities -- you can virtually explore them, cruising up and down streets. It's simply amazing. Check it out.The only disappointment is that more cities aren't available in the street view. I think right now it's limited to San Francisco, New York, Denver, Las Vegas, and Miami.

Watch this video for a two-minute explanation. I've been street viewing New York City for the past little while. Man, I miss that place. I was so creative and alive there. That was before I sold my soul to technical writing. Do a virtual tour walking down Broadway in NYC. Here are a few street view pictures:

Times Square
Times Square, the craziest, most visually stimulating place on earth

Broadway
141st and Broadway area, near our first Brownstone experience (Harlem)

New York City
Near Juliard, this is the LDS building that is now a temple

Columbia
Columbia Univ., School of the Arts (where I went to school)

Looking at these pictures reminds me of the time when I had creative writing foremost in my mind. What happened to that? Wow, it's like I'm remembering who I used to be ...

I guess I realized I needed to make a living, and technical writing (after a two-year teaching stint at the American Univ. in Cairo) is where I ended up. But looking back at New York makes me rethink my decision. Maybe I should be a tech writer by day, essayist by night.

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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