Google Street View Visits Roanoke

Whenever I first gave Google Earth a try, I was impressed. I put in my address in Tempe, Arizona and you could clearly see the top of my condo, complete with my seemingly bad parking job (I loathe double-parking, so maybe it was just the angle). I put in my brother's address in LA, and - sure enough - it held even more detail.

Then I put in the address of some family and friends back in Roanoke, and...trees. Lots of trees. And some street names. That's not to say they were detailed trees that covered the house - it was just that bad of a picture.

Thus, I was expecting the same thing when I first tried Google Street View. Actually, I wasn't expecting anything at all because I was sure it wouldn't even be an option when Googling my house here.

But then, there it is - street view - so I click it. Suddenly I'm looking at the front of my house in greater detail than the aerial pic of my Arizona condo not two years earlier.

You can see that damn file cabinet to the left of my front door on the porch that my wife bought at a yard sale as a "project" that she was going to strip and decoupage.

Okay, so this likely has a lot less to do with Roanoke coming up in the world and a lot more to do with the godlike power of Google, but it was still packed a wow factor. And while I think that it really doesn't have much to do with navigation, I'm not among those who feel it's invading my privacy, either. I guess it just makes living in a city that's been pretty low profile feel a little more - I don't know - open. That could be good, right?