👀 Street view neat view

#291 | Not all who wander are lost

Hi hi,

When Google Earth first came into our lives peeking into our houses through the Internet was a fun thing to do. Now it's just a creepy reminder that privacy is dead.

Occasionally, it helps to forget the number of weird things that Google has un-earthed - like a pentagram in Kazakhstan - and appreciate the value of living in a time when you can explore a random street on the Internet.

My sister and I are planning a trip soon, and one of the things we've been doing is tracing the places we'll go on street view. It's helped us figure out where to stay and things to see.

It got us both really excited for the trip. Looking at real buildings and roads has a way of making plans feel solid. Maybe not the best trade-off to the insane lack of privacy, but at least you can see where you're going.

And when you don't have travel plans, you have today's Thing.

MapCrunch takes you to a random street anywhere in the world at the click of a button. It doesn't tell you where the street is beyond the name, so you'll need to do some keyboard sleuthing.  

I've already spent an inordinate amount of time going around the streets of the Philippines, Slovenia, and New Zealand. Sometimes it's grasslands, dingy streets, or sky-high buildings. I never know what I'm gonna get, except maybe some damn good travel inspiration.

Analina