My mother died in hospital a few years ago. My brother, who lived with her and cared for her, was cruising street view and found 5 photos of mum in her garden looking at a rose bush. They were the last photos taken of her.
My old neighbor was trying to sell his home for a few years and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't sell when other homes in the area were selling just fine. One day I was scrolling by my house on street view and learned why - his house was being raided by SWAT when Google drove by.
@chrislane no you don't. You can hide a lot of damage with some drywall mud and paint. If a bullet knicked wire, you'd probably never know unless it's MC or in conduit, which almost never happens in residential(high rise apartments only, basically). They can't afford to bend conduit in every half million dollar house. Your best case scenario is a problematic breaker that keeps tripping. Just as likely, you're calling the fire department and insurance.
When working as a 911 dispatcher, I've brought up google street view to give responders a precise description of where they're responding from the street, and also to help narrow down the location a caller who doesn't know where they are. The call info might come in with a location that has a 500 yard radius in a dense area, but with street view and the caller's description of what they're seeing in front of them, we've been able to pin down an actual address to send responders to.
There was a picture from Google Street view of my dad sitting on the porch, smoking a cigarette, and it was first noticed about a year and a half after he passed
@@greggjohnson621 Not really immortalized. The images are eventually updated the next time Google comes around. Idk if Google has an archive can look through, else might need to be manually archived by like screen recording.
Sometime when I get bored I like to Street View random places just to see what's there, and in one instance I saw a truck where of course the driver was blurred, but in the backseat was his dog and they blurred its face too. That made my day.
Google Maps is sometimes outdated. In my town, at the beginning of a discontinued road, someone put up a sign. "Google is wrong. Road closed. Turn around."
In a small town near me, so many semis turned in the wrong place to follow a major road and got stuck in little side streets, the town put up a sign clearly stating “Semis; DON’T TURN HERE! TURN IN A COUPLE BLOCKS!” 😡
If you log into google from a computer you can let them know about routing errors. They are quick to fix (in my experience). It also routed me weirdly on a recent trip so i went the normal way and i think they’re using AI now because google maps asked me for feedback.
my grandmother who passed away a couple years ago is pictured outside her house weeding her garden on street view. Sometimes I look up her house just to see her in her everyday setting once again.
@@kellydalstok8900Google does have the option to see images taken at other dates as well, so it'll be replaced for basic street view but the image itself will still be accessible
I use to do the same for my grandma‘s house. Unfortunately, they did update the Google street view, and now her house shows as been demolished (by the local university).
We use Streetview a lot for my job verifying address numbers. Seen a lot of wild things. Personal favorite is a little girl chasing an escaped calf somewhere in Nebraska.
Comment to add about William Moldt- at the time he ended up in that pond, the neighborhood was still under construction. The roads weren’t entirely finished and there weren’t signs or landmarks to indicate the pond had been built and filled. Since it was very late and no street lights had yet been installed, he likely missed the road becoming a T intersection and accidentally went straight ahead.
My mother passed away in August of 2012. One day after my brother and I had gotten home from the funeral and all the family stuff, I decided to look at her place on Google Street View. I was missing her terribly and just wanted to remember her. I looked at her address and amazingly, there she was in her front yard. She was checking things out,watching the Google car. There was even a picture of her bending over to pull a weed! There were 3 pictures of her. I made screenshots of those pictures and still have them to this day, October 20, 2024. I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found them, and immediately texted the pictures to my brother. He was pretty surprised and happy too! It’s a great memory!
We showed up on street view posing in front of the house for YEARS. We saw the Maps car coming from way down the street, they saw we were getting ready and they let us get all set up before photographing/filming. It's still one of my favorite things to talk about when Maps comes up. 😂😂
I once waved at the street view car. Google ended up completely removing me and my car from that section of road and left it as older street view. I guess they don't like being waved at.
@@RedTail1-1 So you're saying I could follow a street view car around with something on my hood and effectively waste their day or cause someone to have to censor thousands of images?
Some time after my mom died, a neighbour attended us on her walking the dog on streetview. It's a long road, and she can be seen for a long time. It's the closest to film that I have of her.
Our dog, Tiger, passed away due to old age about a decade ago. A few years ago we discovered his image on Google Street View. He was lounging on our yard, like he used to most of the time. Miss that big red dog!
Not lost in a scary place, but street view saved me from booking a really sketchy airbnb that was apparently inside an auto mechanic shop. Not above it, inside it. It was a single story building with the same address. You could also tell it was in a really shitty part of town. I decided to stay at a hotel instead and had a very fun trip. Thanks, street view.
@@matthewchiarella8305 no, not in Santa Fe, it was in a major city on the east coast. But now I have questions: are there two of these places? Are there more? Is there an auto mechanic Airbnb human trafficking ring? Lol I'm chewing my fingernails again, send help 😅
I found a fantastic hotel for our holiday in the Netherlands this way. In Amsterdam all the photos showed crowds of people, so I started looking further out towards Volendam. Found the Hotel Volendam on the main road, twenty minutes bus ride from the centre, even had its own bus stop!
I did this while I was looking for a new home this past year... because the realtor of course, only takes a picture of the house that's for sale which looks really good... and then, you look at the house across the street...
The information privacy thing is perplexing. I'm not allowed to run a dash cam while I deliver food because it's considered collection of peoples private information to film them walking down the street. I can do that as a private citizen but when I'm working it becomes a commercial issue and violates Canada's PIPA act. Yet Google are allowed to drive around blatantly doing the same thing, harvesting protected information and making money from it, in an objectively commercial setting. It's so weird.
Canada that's your problem. no seriously I have a very close friend that lives in New Brunswick and the stories he tells me about Y'all are absolutely wild.
What if you get into an accident? I'm dealing with the fallout of one and the litigation and I wish I'd had a dash cam. I'll definitely be getting one for my next vehicle.
WTF, you'd think dashcams for commercial-use vehicles would be encouraged. WTF is wrong with Canada? Inb4 "free healthcare" or "well at least our schools..." Haha, yeah okay. Not the point here.
@@InconsistentManner The dashcam is illegal for you because you're driving into people's driveways and are seeing things from private property that you wouldn't be able to see from a public place. In the USA, FexEx is working with the police to spy on everybody with thir vehicle cams - same concept and the police don't need to bother with a warrant. Here is a video from a US lawyer explaining it. ua-cam.com/video/bIUQApnhENU/v-deo.html
I solved a minor mystery using Street View: While walking my dog, I noticed a street name sign had gone missing. While using Street View to pinpoint the location to file a notice with my city, I noticed that when you zoom in or out, or view from a different direction, images from different dates appear. The lamp pole which previously held the sign had been REPLACED with a fancier pole, and workers had neglected to attach the street sign to the new pole.
My brother hides sometimes to scare us, this is a normal kid thing. Maybe the child was waiting for somebody who the camera just didnt capture. Maybe he was playing hide and seek. Sometimes the most mundane answers are the most realistic ones
The truth is quite often stranger than fiction, and what one finds mysterious isn't mysterious at all for those that know what's going on. A pretty solid campaign for us to mind our own business!
I'm from San Diego. The loch ness monster one has an obvious explanation. That's an area popular with surfers and the guy seems to be wearing a wet suit. We also get a lot of big piles of kelp that wash on shore. Surfers are exactly the kind of people who would see the google maps guy coming and drop everything to throw a kelp pile on their head and photobomb him.
He's a guy who sits camouflaged as a bush then suddenly jumps up and scares tourists. Does it high traffic areas to make money from others who wait to see it happen.
@@joelwexler Mmm, I wonder what 'insurance' he has for the increasingly likely chance of getting punched in the face? Many people are growing tired of pranksters who think they can do anything to anybody for likes and views on social media.
One of my dogs couldn't walk for almost 6 months. We didn't think she was going to make it. We were getting sad and one of my aunts wondered if we could see her bright pink pool in our backyard on google maps. You could, she was playing in her pool at the time too. We ended up getting her acupuncture and she's been running and playing in her pool for the last 4 years.
I was literally conducting a data analysis as Joe said: "We don't make sense of things by looking at piles of data on a spreadsheet. I guess some of you do, weirdos". I feel called out 😅
Data Engineer here who has to do data analysis as well... I felt that, too... :D (though, it's usually and hopefully not directly involving in spreadsheets!)
I've just had this "glitch in the matrix" moment - started scrolling down to the comments before the video ended, and began reading the quoted sentence at the exact same time Joe was saying it. My internal voice and his recorded one weirdly merged 🤨
Sometimes I think that the time stamp changes the comment to the comments that were posted around that time. Cause a 101 times I have looked at the comment. And it was the same thing that he's saying at the same time multiple times@@0o0eM
GSM is directly behind its demise. The decade-long practice of auto-hacking everyone's wifi to improve their IP geolocation database was intentionally continued after it had been declared illegal by a judge, because it was worth the potential fines.
Yes, I agree that would have been nice. I paused and zoomed in to some of the pics. On mobile UA-cam, you can now use your fingers on the screen to zoom.
What's crazy is if you could see 99.99% of most people's final moments they'd be just as mundane You never know when you'll die hold your loved ones close
I knew about Sigmund and the Sea Monster from a young age, but never saw it myself, and never met anyone who talked about having seen it. It was quite the throwback to hear you talk about it.
A Haberdasher is not the maker of hats, but the supplier of needle craft materials, particularly fabric, threads, buttons and other notions. It is a 'milliner' who makes hats and/or fashionable headwear
I was certain you were wrong and looked it up- you are correct. In the uk it is as you describe, in the us, its menswear, though not hats as far as I can tell.
The idea that we MUST sacrifice our privacy in order to have innovation and convenience is exactly what corporate giants like Google want people to think. I sincerely believe it's possible to have both, but improving the lives of mankind is not a goal of these governments or corporations, their goal is squeezing every penny of profit out of people. & that's easier to do if those people are complacent thinking "this is just the way things are now"
the two things are not mutually exclusive. you can the goal of helping people's lives as well as making a bunch of money. and those google services are free to use for everyone.
They can never deny truthfully that it's all about Marketing more Chinese junk,such as the ads they now double up on the popular UA-cams Capitalism one of the worst "isms"
@@ronblack7870 They absolutely are mutually exclusive! Theres only so much money ,resources and energy in the world . If its all in the hands of increasingly powerful monopolies then its a race to the bottom .
TRUE STORY HERE: In 2008 I bought a car from auction in US. It was after minor road accident. I shipped it to Europe, repaired.. and all was good. But then I found some original docs in glove box... And there was an address. When I typed it in - it was residential address of previous owners of the car. And surely, Google Earth was showing this car just outside their home. The same car was snapped by Google in my country in 2012. So for some time the same car was on google street view in 2 locations: USA (Georgia) and Lithuania (Kaunas)
Did you get the car because it was a good deal? Would it have been cheaper to buy a car locally? Convenient both countries drive on the same side of the road. My father visited Lithuania in the 90's while working as a civil servant to try and help them with accounting, explaining how the US did things. He enjoyed the trip very much. The dirtiest word he learned while he was there was Soviet, he heard awful stories about them, how they stripped wiring out of buildings for the copper value before they left.
@@PatrolBoat-Riverine-Streetgang oh yes, that deal was epic. The car I bought, after all repairs, repaint and other stuff was like 10k USD, and I know the history, services and what was the damage. while locally same car was something like 15k USD and by all means you had to trust the seller (re-seller) that history was 100% true. Hint - almost always it was not true)
I tried to show a kid how to walk to a certain building that was built 2020, and with that the street was also renovated. We "walk", "walk", are nearly there... and then in one step, the sidewalks disappear, street turns into dirt road, instead of houses there are trees, bushes, wilderness - we don't know anymore where we are! The 2023 Google street view car hadn't gone as far (although the street was better) as the 2011 one.
Yes, a lot of places don't get updates. If you're way out in the country or in a small town in a state nobody visits, you might have 2008 imagery forever.
A relative and her husband lived in an apartment building in Portland, OR, for a few months. The initial street view shows a parking lot with a strip mall where the apartment building is supposed to be. Then, as I moved around in the image, using the Google arrows, all of a sudden the apartment building appears. It was like the old and new images were stitched together.
I once looked up my grandparents old house on google earth. When I did I could see my grandfathers truck and his dog laying on the driveway, which was my grandfathers bestfriend. Back in the summer of 2016 my grandfather passed away, shortly after so did his dog Cotton. You can still see my grandfathers truck and his dog till this day in 2025. It’s a ghost frozen in time and a good way to remember and reminisce on my childhood memories.
My wife has been captured twice in the last 3 years on Google Street View. Both times wearing the same work shirt (she has 10+ shirts that she rotates between and only works 3 days a week at a local hospital)
When i looked up where I live last time, Google caught a picture of our old dog Zoey pooping out in the side yard. It makes me smile every time I think of it, she was a funny little dog and I like to think she would think it was hilarious.
I came across your video today. Not only did I enjoy it, but I subscribed to your channel. I recently encountered a Google camera car at a traffic light. I don't care that I'm 61, I took get joy at making a fool of myself while telling the whole world HELLO ( 👋from Amarillo, Texas, USA) Good job, Joe Scott! 👍👏👊
Last time I was lost in a dangerous place: Somewhere in the cellphone/GPS dead zone on the border of NH and ME I had to ask directions at a "gas station" .It was getting dark and the only business I had seen in a long time in an area was nothing but dense trees and houses with Deliverance vibes. The place only sold diesel and the general store was a sad grocery / taxidermist office / a video rental (with a missive adult section). To this day I have no idea where I was, but the ZZ Top looking dude inside was super nice and helpful.
... i may actually know exactly the location you're talking about. i ended up in a VERY similar sounding place about a year ago, in that very same area. if it is the same place, i can fully agree that it would be super creepy when it starts getting dark. especially knowing that basically EVERYTHING over there shuts down when it gets dark.
The nonchalance in your voice saying "That's just how it is now" is eery. That really sends chills down my spine. Orwell couldn't even imagine what's normal today and it's honestly a miracle we dont already live in a distopian hellscape.
@@tapewerm6716 We are but you can't see it. I guess it is hard for anyone younger than 50 to see this, but we old people remember what freedom and privacy was.
@@WillyKling As someone who grew up in the eighties, I would MUCH rather the sort of shit a lot of adults did when I was a kid was public knowledge. Some people don't deserve privacy.
@@johnathanmartin1504 Everyone deserves privacy and freedom. You can fight crime without having 24/7 surveillence on the entire population. I know, because this is how policing worked back then, and we had less crime.
This is so fun. Years ago, when Smartphones were new and cost an outrageous $250, my friends and I traveled to NeitherWorld Haunted House in Atlanta in a big van. We had all been making fun of one guy for spending so much money on a new phone until we got lost! He pulled out his expensive new toy and gave us turn by turn directions to our destination. After that, everyone in the van wanted one of those phones!
One of my favorite Street View stories was an early street view car driving into a military base just mapping barracks etc. When the Base Commander found out and saw it, he flipped his lid. After that, Google removed such maps and also began blurring military bases from aerial view. Joe, I'd love to see you cover that story and/or things like it -- when new tech completely outpaced the world around it. Great video as always! Love you, Joe!
A couple of years ago Google Earth wasn’t as accurate, as it is today apparently. They blurred a village half a mile from a military radar tower, and I seem to remember the tower itself was still visible. I just checked, and both are visible now. The new replacement tower even has a marking stating it’s a radar post. The nearby military airfield is still blurred, but you can still make out the runways, so it’s obviously an airfield.
When I entered the US military, even the base phone book was Confidential. It is insane that Google thought it was ok to just take pictures of everything inside a military base.
Dude, you don't know old. When i went to college before I went into the military, you could only access a computer by punch cards or magnetic tape. Circa 1974
17:00 Rex Heuermann has not in fact been found guilty, his trial hasn't even started yet. He probably *will* be found guilty, but it's important to get that right.
@@LambentLight00 I don't know the case, but typically in the US such things take so long because the DA wants as tight a case as possible against the defendant. Also COVID caused a lot of cases to just be put on hold until a later date.
I think the police are still looking at new victims and new evidence. This case is super interesting and has a million twists and turns. Many videos about this online. He is the suspected Long Island serial killer out of New York, USA. U can look it up, too much to tell you here. ❤✌🏻@LambentLight00
My job requires alot of driving to peoples houses. Been doing it since 1997. My kid asked how we got there before iPhones. Good question. I went to the garage and pulled out my old atlas. Basically told her it was a huge map, cut up into pages. Looked up the street in the back, that told u the page, then from there you found it and saw on the map you had to go. It really was a pain in the ass, but that's what we did. I have a very keen sense of direction. My kids, however, need GPS to leave the neighborhood
I was a realtor from 2006-2009. Realtor MLS listings used to have a “grid#” which related to a book of maps called Mapsco. There was a page#, column, then row. Each page had a grid. The listing would say “247C1” - page 247 row c column 1 to find a small area. Then you’d drive there and figure out the rest. That’s not even 20 years ago.
Ditto. I used to have a whole pile of ADC maps for all sorts of counties and areas I'd use to look up places and then manually map the routes to get there, hoping roads hadn't changed since the map was printed. Some recent (young) employees have tried to cancel work because their phones were broken/data used up so they couldn't "get to the job" because they couldn't use the GPS. 🤣
I am the same way. Grew up navigating with paper maps and if you are covering a large distance in the middle of nowhere and needed to know where you were, stop at any labeled intersection and find that on a map becuase 999 out of 1000 times thier is only one place those roads intersect, X marks the spot thats where you were. I have ran into only two places where a very old state highway that was built in a long curve around something and later a new higway or an interstate made a strait path and the old highway was still in use and the interstate crossed it twice but even then I was not lost I just noticed it in passing and then later looked at the map and verified my observation.
I drove a cab in '06 & '07 and this is exactly how we found people's addresses. You could buy stand-alone GPS devices at that time, but they were super expensive, so none of us cab drivers had one. And mapping apps were definitely not available on phones yet -- hell, smartphones were barely a thing. The iPhone was released in '07, and Blackberrys had been around for a bit, but both of those were too expensive for a cab driver to own at the time. Plus I don't think they had mapping apps with GPS on them that early.
For years my oldest son and I were sitting together cuddling on the block retaining wall at our local park. When I found the street view picture my son was about 15 irl, and he was just a toddler in the street view. I went back to that picture many many times until they finally changed it. Just a random moment of our life frozen in time.
He is in Vancouver now! On a roof :D Saw him while I was on a flight over the city. Least I can say is I was pretty surprised and happy when I saw him haha I was so excited but was traveling alone so I couldn’t share my excitement with anyone hahah
I just watched one of those mystery disappearance stories. The lady was a mountaineer. After all kinds of searches, someone finally found her at the bottom of a ravine. She fell and died. That was it. Apparently, those deep crevices where people fall are often difficult to get to casually. So it makes sense to me that that little old lady was in some crevice people just didn't go to because it was dangerous to get to.
This actually happened to me! lol I was working as a front end manager for a Walmart market in Poplar Bluff Missouri and was on break. I went out front and sat next to the building to have a cigarette when the google street view car drove by! It’s since been updated so it’s not there any more, but it was fun to see myself on google street view for a while!❤
Pre Google Earth my friend's dad was a cartographer and aerial photographer. He was commissioned by the state gov of our state in Australia to find the exact map locations of a bunch of small, country schools. They began by flying over the regions where the schools were but found that it was hard to twll the difference between little country schools and large country properties until they realised that most of the schools would have a cricket pitch. So they looked for properties with a long rectangular bit of grass/dirt that stood out from all the other grass or dirt. Just one of the professions that has changed dramatically since Google Earth/streetview.
Surveying in general is a nearly dead profession now. Most companies and governments just use google for that information. Even when they do need or want boots on the ground it's often just an intern with a laser pointer and a tablet.
In the late 80's, I literally got lost driving home. We had just moved and it was late at night and I took a wrong turn. I got lost for a good hour. I am so glad we have google maps on our phones today. I just moved again recently and use maps to find my way around every day.
It’s a kind of art collective in a pretty artsy area of Tokyo. They also have a gallery of photos of them wearing pigeon masks in other places and clubs.
Google maps steered me wrong in the mountains of Alberta. I was trying to take a shortcut and followed the voice directions, ended up in the dark, on a ever smaller forestry service road, in the snow, with three pets in the car, and no cell service. I had to go by memory to find my way out. Boy was I scared. I reached a hotel and told the tale, they said it had happened before.
In South Africa is been a big thing that people follow Google maps and end up in areas that are really dangerous if you're not local. Lots of tourists have gotten hijacked/mugged. If I'm not mistaken there have been a few lawsuits against Google.
Where I am from (Argentina) people got killed because of following directions through dangerous places (like favellas in the night). Where I live (Spain), people got killed for, advised on Google maps, crossing bridges that have been out of use for years, but not closed (when the bridge finally collapsed, people from there told that they have been writing to Google for years to take it out from directions. They never got a response).
Always keep a blanket and water in your vehicle, especially in areas with lots of snow and not much cell service. And food too. But water is more important. And keeping warm. Careful running your motor unless you are positive the muffler isn't blocked by snow. And if u run it, don't go to sleep if it's snowing. I wouldn't even if it wasn't. Because what if it started snowing while asleep? Especially with your precious pet babies in there!
3 years ago I moved to the Western NC mountains, to a rural area completely new to me, from Atlanta. Here, it literally told me to turn off the side of a mountain on an imaginary air road. And anytime I ever want to go north from my house, it tells me to take a nonexistent road to the highway. I've given feedback several times but they never update it. The worst thing that following Google Maps ever did in Atlanta was have me do a stupid on-off, on-off thing with highways, not try to kill me.
Joe you really need to do something about this you’re putting your viewers at risk, that sponsor transition was so smooth I could have slipped and broken my ankle
What I find very annoying, is that google not only blurs vehicle number plates, but also street names and house numbers. This makes it difficult, even impossible to navigate, or locate where you are. .
I've lived in my house since 2014, we moved in when it was a new-build. We've watched it over the years on Google maps go from a field, to a building site, sitting in a mud-bowl, lawns appear! Trees, bushes! The technology is so amazing, and amazing it's available for free.
For some reason, our tiny town in rural Kansas is routinely, frequently updated by Google Streetview. When we are out of town, we joke that we can check on our house live just by using Google Maps. 😅
Must be a test spot or something. I found out that google seems to update major urban places before doing the rural ones. My google street view in my house currently in the city is only a few years old, updates fairly frequently. The photo of my mom’s house in a rural place is at least ten years old, before she renovated. Place looks abandoned, lol
@@kellydalstok8900 that's so funny! Google is really going the extra mile to protect that cat's privacy. But my cat's little face isn't, but our house is set pretty far back from the road unlike other houses on our street.
The one about the execution, it is a bit of a stretch to say it was solved due to Google Maps. A renowned investigative group Bellingcat (they investigated the poisoning of russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny) worked on this, along with tens if not hundreds of OSINT experts and enthusiasts. For the longest time they could not figure out where that “distinctive” mountain range actually was. They asked volunteers to comb through thousands of photos and topographic maps. It was an insane amount of work! They talk about this extensively on their podcast, I think it was in season 2. It’s a fascinating listen.
@@alisaarama5585 Thank you so much! That podcast is really, really well made. I've already listened to the first episode about this, ah, _incident,_ and dear god it's such a horrible story... But they're some really good, amazing people in the OSINT and Bellingcat community, I'm so impressed. Subscribed.
Last time I got lost in a dangerous place was October 22, 2005. (Only reason I know the exact date is because it was my girlfriend’s birthday.) I had to drive to Dearborn early that morning to take the PCAT, a super important test for the future of my career. I printed the directions out and drove it the day before to be sure; it was an hour drive roughly. Well, when I drove that morning, the freeway had been closed overnight, and it forced me into a bad area of Detroit and I had no idea where to go. There were people walking in the streets like a zombie movie, and cars on cinder blocks with the tires removed, grocery stores with barbed wire on the roof. I finally got directions from some elderly guys in a diner and made it to my test. Then after the test I had to do that again on the way back, I had no smart phone or maps.
I did see a mini doc that showed a small town in japan where the locals ,after a wild life research scientist started wearing a pigeon helmet to see if he could get closer and feed the pigeons better idk I don't remember why he started it but the locals found it fun and interesting and to my knowledge they hold events on certain days were the locals along with children feed the pigeons wearing these pigeon masks. idk something along those lines, it is a thing and not just for the Google camera lol
The last time I got lost in a dangerous place was when I was a medical student on an obstetrics and gynecology attachment - not even an echo! Yes, I studied in Liverpool.
Was not expecting anyone to talk about privacy, but glad you did! Sadly Big Tech companies want us to think that our only choices are privacy or lack of technology/innovation, but that's not always true. Sure, Street View requires us to expect to be seen in public, but Google didn't have to scrape our WiFi data in the process. I hope in the future more people will realize that companies need to be reasonable and kept in check and start taking their privacy more seriously. Great video though, Joe, it's awesome to see how much your channel has grown since the early days! I always enjoy when you've put out a new upload!
Reminds me of how Europeans have more Internet rights than the 'so called free world' here out west... meanwhile some people have been led to believe that it is the 2nd amendment that ensures one's rights, rather than the rule of law and the consent of the governed... It absolutely must be addressed going forward, but all paths lead to systemic policy changes and the only way to push forward is to get involved!
@@OzymandiasWasRight the fire wheels with eyes are ophanim or Thrones. There are also different types mentioned in the Bible, like Seraphim and Cherubim.
I'm so grateful that Google street view has the option to go back to different years. There's a photo of my mum talking to my neighbour on street view from a few years ago. My mum passed away in 2022 and I just love that she is memorialised on street view forever
I was hoping to see that well known meme with a man wearing an orange jumpsuit walking down a lonely country road with the caption "Google Earth street view may catch you escaping prison, but they'll still blur out your face because Google ain't no snitch." I also remember Sigmund, but I never watched it. However, there was something similar in the show Kolchak: The Night Stalker tv series with some swamp thingy that lived in the sewer.
i used to watch that show, but i can't remember any details of a particular episode. however the guy reminded me of some irwin allen type show like lost in space or voyage to the bottom of the sea
I went to look at my mother's house on Google Street view when it became available in that area and there she was, hanging a towel out of a window to dry!
There’s a picture of my grandma sweeping her garage on google maps, and she laughs every time we show it to her. She’s not dead yet, but she will be immortalized there.
"The Greater Good" Back in college we would go on burn rides late at night through rural Pennsylvania. The goal was to smoke until you got lost and then smoke until you found your way back. There were certain rules like no hits on roads with a center line, etc. it was pretty handy for figuring out the local area and how to navigate roads in general. Figuring out little things like that the color of a street sign means different things, paying attention to the little markers along the roads, knowing that farmers need access to fields so there must be a way around. All type of stuff. Man, fun to get high and lost too.
It might be good to note the correct information about RH ,the suspected killer. He has been arrested, and is in jail pending trial. Has not yet been convicted.
Speaking of being seen from 'space', I'm still reeling from finding the blue asbestos tailings in Whittenoom Australia on Google Maps and Earth. Insane.
Last time I got lost I was in the woods at an old cabin with my family. I went on a hike and got lost. I walked in circles for 2 hours, always somehow coming back the what seem like the same place. After 2 hours I gave up and went in the opposite direction and I kid you not, I was 20 feet for the cabin.... I was so embarrassed...
"They later found that minivan on street view at HIS PARENTS' HOUSE in Texas." Why did they never bother to include his parents' house in their initial search?
Or that mafia boss who escaped from prison, being fugitive for 20 years, changing identy, living a low profile life and not even contacting his family for a decade as a precaution just to be caught in 2 decades later because of a random Street view picture and not because of him doing something or slipping up to give himself away. That must have hurt so bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was caught considering who he is and what he's done, but he probably got existential crisis after that.
Google Street view captured my late grandpa sitting outside wearing a yellow tshirt but due to constant update, I never got glimpse of it again(and the house was sold after 2-3 years of his passing, so I never thought of searching it).
There a street view image of my friend in a complete panic by the side of the road, with her car's hood open and the engine is on fire 😂 The car was on its last leg anyway, and nobody was hurt.
On street view there was a guy walking down our street who looks very like, but is not, my husband. He was a friend of a friend and lived nearby. A few years later he became my daughters' maths teacher (twins). I told them that's the guy from street view. They were really weirded out. Turns out they had never believed it wasn't their dad.
I grew up in San Francisco. My dad’s boyfriend taught me how to use Google Earth, and my dad was even featured for a while crossing the street near our house on street view. Love and respect street view.
5:44 if he's found in London that means we found Wally, as he was only renamed Waldo for American publication. Somewhere out there the US Waldo is still in hiding...
Fun video!! I must have missed the announcement/talk, but I’m very happy to see the chair spin return. When I hear the bongos, I get Maslowed every time
My dog got out once and the google street view car went by, she chased it for a bit then went back home. They even blurred 🫥 her face HA! she has since passed. But every now and then I go to it just to laugh. She was a sweet girl.
My mother died in hospital a few years ago. My brother, who lived with her and cared for her, was cruising street view and found 5 photos of mum in her garden looking at a rose bush. They were the last photos taken of her.
What a wonderful surprise. ❤
Oh gosh, that is so touching. Thank you for telling about that.🦋
Wow! Makes me want to go back to some old adresses❤❤❤
Awww 🥹🌹
Nice, but blurred face
My old neighbor was trying to sell his home for a few years and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't sell when other homes in the area were selling just fine. One day I was scrolling by my house on street view and learned why - his house was being raided by SWAT when Google drove by.
lol some luck
I want that house!!!!!
@chrislane no you don't. You can hide a lot of damage with some drywall mud and paint. If a bullet knicked wire, you'd probably never know unless it's MC or in conduit, which almost never happens in residential(high rise apartments only, basically). They can't afford to bend conduit in every half million dollar house. Your best case scenario is a problematic breaker that keeps tripping. Just as likely, you're calling the fire department and insurance.
😮😂
@edew9180 Your joking right? Lol
When working as a 911 dispatcher, I've brought up google street view to give responders a precise description of where they're responding from the street, and also to help narrow down the location a caller who doesn't know where they are. The call info might come in with a location that has a 500 yard radius in a dense area, but with street view and the caller's description of what they're seeing in front of them, we've been able to pin down an actual address to send responders to.
Very resourceful!😊
lol, where I live the newest picture is 2yo, the oldest is 11yo
Nice! Have you seen the website 'what3words?' I wish info like that was immediately sent to 911 when you call it.
Great thinking! Using your resources in the moment to help those in need. Thank you.🤩
@@badbad_where you live do buildings and landmarks get destroyed and rebuilt every year?
There was a picture from Google Street view of my dad sitting on the porch, smoking a cigarette, and it was first noticed about a year and a half after he passed
Awww… very sad, yet in a way, kind of a gift. To see him immortalized in that way.
My sympathies.
@@greggjohnson621 thank you…. It was very cool and provided a huge amount of closure and understanding that he’s still around
@@greggjohnson621 Not really immortalized. The images are eventually updated the next time Google comes around. Idk if Google has an archive can look through, else might need to be manually archived by like screen recording.
bro, that hits the feels
@@aaron_brown7324I love this ❤ he is definitely still close with you guys
Sometime when I get bored I like to Street View random places just to see what's there, and in one instance I saw a truck where of course the driver was blurred, but in the backseat was his dog and they blurred its face too. That made my day.
Respect dogs' privacy.😉
Dog Lives Matter. 😄
😂😂😂
😂😂😂
That was funny!❤
Google Maps is sometimes outdated. In my town, at the beginning of a discontinued road, someone put up a sign. "Google is wrong. Road closed. Turn around."
I got stuck on a road Google thinks still exists....
In a small town near me, so many semis turned in the wrong place to follow a major road and got stuck in little side streets, the town put up a sign clearly stating “Semis; DON’T TURN HERE! TURN IN A COUPLE BLOCKS!” 😡
Googoo Gaagaa maps
If you log into google from a computer you can let them know about routing errors. They are quick to fix (in my experience). It also routed me weirdly on a recent trip so i went the normal way and i think they’re using AI now because google maps asked me for feedback.
Google also makes up roads - all over the world! It's ridiculous!
my grandmother who passed away a couple years ago is pictured outside her house weeding her garden on street view. Sometimes I look up her house just to see her in her everyday setting once again.
Take a screenshot before it is replaced.
@@kellydalstok8900Google does have the option to see images taken at other dates as well, so it'll be replaced for basic street view but the image itself will still be accessible
@@kellydalstok8900I think you can click on “history” and it takes you to older photos of that street
I use to do the same for my grandma‘s house. Unfortunately, they did update the Google street view, and now her house shows as been demolished (by the local university).
@@LH-yc5vy You can go back in time in streetview on a pc. Next to the date you can click on "show more dates"
We use Streetview a lot for my job verifying address numbers. Seen a lot of wild things. Personal favorite is a little girl chasing an escaped calf somewhere in Nebraska.
sounds about right
I'm from Nebraska. This checks out.
That is so Nebraska. 😂
i want your job so bad.....................
@@lolopez8319 Look into Geographic Information Systems (GIS)!
Comment to add about William Moldt- at the time he ended up in that pond, the neighborhood was still under construction. The roads weren’t entirely finished and there weren’t signs or landmarks to indicate the pond had been built and filled. Since it was very late and no street lights had yet been installed, he likely missed the road becoming a T intersection and accidentally went straight ahead.
thank you for providing additional context there!
That was the story I heard, too. It was a developer checking out the neighborhood.
Sounds like the development might have done a poor job of safguarding the route as it was changing during contruction.
@@SardonicALLY, probably. There was a big development boom in the late 90s and early 00s.
The person found William Moldt's car using satellite view, NOT Street View.
For a while when you googled my property that was for sale, my realtor was standing across the street taking pictures....and he had three legs.
It was absolutely certain my old house was a few lots down the street instead of it's actual location at the end of the cul de sac
he must really enjoy his job
Damn he must be packing if it looked like a third leg on Streetview.
Why are we here in this life? Why do we die? What will happen to us after death?
So do I
My mother passed away in August of 2012.
One day after my brother and I had gotten home from the funeral and all the family stuff, I decided to look at her place on Google Street View. I was missing her terribly and just wanted to remember her.
I looked at her address and amazingly, there she was in her front yard.
She was checking things out,watching the Google car. There was even a picture of her bending over to pull a weed!
There were 3 pictures of her.
I made screenshots of those pictures and still have them to this day, October 20, 2024.
I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found them, and immediately texted the pictures to my brother. He was pretty surprised and happy too!
It’s a great memory!
That's great! 🩷
We showed up on street view posing in front of the house for YEARS. We saw the Maps car coming from way down the street, they saw we were getting ready and they let us get all set up before photographing/filming. It's still one of my favorite things to talk about when Maps comes up. 😂😂
Honestly that's actually really cool
😂🤣😂
I once waved at the street view car. Google ended up completely removing me and my car from that section of road and left it as older street view. I guess they don't like being waved at.
🙄
No. They don't. All sorts of legal stuff involved.
@@RedTail1-1 So you're saying I could follow a street view car around with something on my hood and effectively waste their day or cause someone to have to censor thousands of images?
I've done that myself. They never published my picture either.
Some time after my mom died, a neighbour attended us on her walking the dog on streetview. It's a long road, and she can be seen for a long time. It's the closest to film that I have of her.
Awwww😢
❤
Should probably record that in some way such as streaming of the computer screen. Eventually that area will be updated and over-written.
@@Vaeldarggoogle dos have the "history" option but I agree, record it
Street views constantly get replaced. You should screenshot those clips for safekeeping. I hope your family is doing ok❤
Our dog, Tiger, passed away due to old age about a decade ago. A few years ago we discovered his image on Google Street View. He was lounging on our yard, like he used to most of the time. Miss that big red dog!
Not lost in a scary place, but street view saved me from booking a really sketchy airbnb that was apparently inside an auto mechanic shop. Not above it, inside it. It was a single story building with the same address. You could also tell it was in a really shitty part of town. I decided to stay at a hotel instead and had a very fun trip. Thanks, street view.
This wasn't in Santa Fe New Mexico by any chance? LOL
@@matthewchiarella8305 no, not in Santa Fe, it was in a major city on the east coast.
But now I have questions: are there two of these places? Are there more? Is there an auto mechanic Airbnb human trafficking ring? Lol I'm chewing my fingernails again, send help 😅
I don't believe you
I found a fantastic hotel for our holiday in the Netherlands this way. In Amsterdam all the photos showed crowds of people, so I started looking further out towards Volendam. Found the Hotel Volendam on the main road, twenty minutes bus ride from the centre, even had its own bus stop!
I did this while I was looking for a new home this past year... because the realtor of course, only takes a picture of the house that's for sale which looks really good... and then, you look at the house across the street...
The information privacy thing is perplexing. I'm not allowed to run a dash cam while I deliver food because it's considered collection of peoples private information to film them walking down the street. I can do that as a private citizen but when I'm working it becomes a commercial issue and violates Canada's PIPA act. Yet Google are allowed to drive around blatantly doing the same thing, harvesting protected information and making money from it, in an objectively commercial setting. It's so weird.
Canada that's your problem. no seriously I have a very close friend that lives in New Brunswick and the stories he tells me about Y'all are absolutely wild.
What if you get into an accident? I'm dealing with the fallout of one and the litigation and I wish I'd had a dash cam. I'll definitely be getting one for my next vehicle.
Not weird, it’s by design.
WTF, you'd think dashcams for commercial-use vehicles would be encouraged. WTF is wrong with Canada? Inb4 "free healthcare" or "well at least our schools..." Haha, yeah okay. Not the point here.
@@InconsistentManner The dashcam is illegal for you because you're driving into people's driveways and are seeing things from private property that you wouldn't be able to see from a public place. In the USA, FexEx is working with the police to spy on everybody with thir vehicle cams - same concept and the police don't need to bother with a warrant. Here is a video from a US lawyer explaining it.
ua-cam.com/video/bIUQApnhENU/v-deo.html
I solved a minor mystery using Street View: While walking my dog, I noticed a street name sign had gone missing. While using Street View to pinpoint the location to file a notice with my city, I noticed that when you zoom in or out, or view from a different direction, images from different dates appear. The lamp pole which previously held the sign had been REPLACED with a fancier pole, and workers had neglected to attach the street sign to the new pole.
I think the bigger mystery is why people think a kid hiding is mysterious. He's a kid, he's playing, more than likely!
My brother hides sometimes to scare us, this is a normal kid thing. Maybe the child was waiting for somebody who the camera just didnt capture. Maybe he was playing hide and seek. Sometimes the most mundane answers are the most realistic ones
The truth is quite often stranger than fiction, and what one finds mysterious isn't mysterious at all for those that know what's going on. A pretty solid campaign for us to mind our own business!
First thing I thought was hide and seek. Still one of the funnest games ever
Yeah, my first thought was: hide and seek
Yep, this.
I'm from San Diego. The loch ness monster one has an obvious explanation. That's an area popular with surfers and the guy seems to be wearing a wet suit. We also get a lot of big piles of kelp that wash on shore. Surfers are exactly the kind of people who would see the google maps guy coming and drop everything to throw a kelp pile on their head and photobomb him.
Lol
absolutely hilarious explanation, i love it
He's a guy who sits camouflaged as a bush then suddenly jumps up and scares tourists. Does it high traffic areas to make money from others who wait to see it happen.
@@joelwexler Mmm, I wonder what 'insurance' he has for the increasingly likely chance of getting punched in the face? Many people are growing tired of pranksters who think they can do anything to anybody for likes and views on social media.
I've seen someone in this same costume near the piers in San Francisco. He held a sign asking for weed.
One of my dogs couldn't walk for almost 6 months. We didn't think she was going to make it. We were getting sad and one of my aunts wondered if we could see her bright pink pool in our backyard on google maps. You could, she was playing in her pool at the time too. We ended up getting her acupuncture and she's been running and playing in her pool for the last 4 years.
I was literally conducting a data analysis as Joe said: "We don't make sense of things by looking at piles of data on a spreadsheet. I guess some of you do, weirdos". I feel called out 😅
Nothing personal. 😄
🤣
Data Engineer here who has to do data analysis as well... I felt that, too... :D
(though, it's usually and hopefully not directly involving in spreadsheets!)
I've just had this "glitch in the matrix" moment - started scrolling down to the comments before the video ended, and began reading the quoted sentence at the exact same time Joe was saying it. My internal voice and his recorded one weirdly merged 🤨
Sometimes I think that the time stamp changes the comment to the comments that were posted around that time. Cause a 101 times I have looked at the comment. And it was the same thing that he's saying at the same time multiple times@@0o0eM
I remember when Google's motto was "Don't be evil." That's long gone.
Yeah. They just officially dropped the "Don't be Evil" as their corporate slogan. Like they're actually copping to it with no shame.
Turns out it was an order to users rather than a corporate ideal.
GSM is directly behind its demise. The decade-long practice of auto-hacking everyone's wifi to improve their IP geolocation database was intentionally continued after it had been declared illegal by a judge, because it was worth the potential fines.
@@artdonovandesign No, they only dropped the "Don't." They kept the rest of the motto.
Your definition of evil IS off or you need meds
I wish he would have shown all the photos in fullscreen for at least a second instead of a lot of them being just tiny in the corner
He was more interested in showing his hair off. It was so fabulous that day.
Pause & zoom 👍
Yes, I agree that would have been nice. I paused and zoomed in to some of the pics. On mobile UA-cam, you can now use your fingers on the screen to zoom.
My mom is captured sitting on my grandma’s front stoop on a sunny day. It’s so wholesome.
What's crazy is if you could see 99.99% of most people's final moments they'd be just as mundane
You never know when you'll die hold your loved ones close
I miss short hair turn around Joe. Why do people fix things that ain't broke. Sigh. Joe...come back... Joe....
As an emergency medical professional, I’ve seen a lot of last moments. They’re not all that dull, unfortunately. But if you’re lucky, they are.
I knew about Sigmund and the Sea Monster from a young age, but never saw it myself, and never met anyone who talked about having seen it. It was quite the throwback to hear you talk about it.
A Haberdasher is not the maker of hats, but the supplier of needle craft materials, particularly fabric, threads, buttons and other notions. It is a 'milliner' who makes hats and/or fashionable headwear
I thought it's a fancy men's clothing store.
@@joelwexlerit's also that
I'm a big fan of fashionable headwear. Hats and beanies are the most bestest invention ever.
Oh
I was certain you were wrong and looked it up- you are correct. In the uk it is as you describe, in the us, its menswear, though not hats as far as I can tell.
The idea that we MUST sacrifice our privacy in order to have innovation and convenience is exactly what corporate giants like Google want people to think. I sincerely believe it's possible to have both, but improving the lives of mankind is not a goal of these governments or corporations, their goal is squeezing every penny of profit out of people. & that's easier to do if those people are complacent thinking "this is just the way things are now"
the two things are not mutually exclusive. you can the goal of helping people's lives as well as making a bunch of money. and those google services are free to use for everyone.
They can never deny truthfully that it's all about Marketing more Chinese junk,such as the ads they now double up on the popular UA-cams
Capitalism
one of the worst "isms"
@@ronblack7870 They absolutely are mutually exclusive! Theres only so much money ,resources and energy in the world . If its all in the hands of increasingly powerful monopolies then its a race to the bottom .
Well we MUST sacrifice our privacy if we want it for FREE. And to be honest, I have a very low price on my privacy in late 2024.
💯
I remember finding out about Google Street view when I was in elementary school and being fascinated by it. I'm still fascinated by it to this day
TRUE STORY HERE:
In 2008 I bought a car from auction in US. It was after minor road accident. I shipped it to Europe, repaired.. and all was good. But then I found some original docs in glove box... And there was an address. When I typed it in - it was residential address of previous owners of the car. And surely, Google Earth was showing this car just outside their home.
The same car was snapped by Google in my country in 2012.
So for some time the same car was on google street view in 2 locations: USA (Georgia) and Lithuania (Kaunas)
Looks like Kansas
That conclusion is kinda underwhelming for the way you built it up
@@lizzyluv96 well... Like the video tbh
Did you get the car because it was a good deal? Would it have been cheaper to buy a car locally? Convenient both countries drive on the same side of the road. My father visited Lithuania in the 90's while working as a civil servant to try and help them with accounting, explaining how the US did things. He enjoyed the trip very much. The dirtiest word he learned while he was there was Soviet, he heard awful stories about them, how they stripped wiring out of buildings for the copper value before they left.
@@PatrolBoat-Riverine-Streetgang oh yes, that deal was epic.
The car I bought, after all repairs, repaint and other stuff was like 10k USD, and I know the history, services and what was the damage. while locally same car was something like 15k USD and by all means you had to trust the seller (re-seller) that history was 100% true. Hint - almost always it was not true)
I'm still on an image from street view from10 years ago. It shows how some places don't get updated regularly.
I tried to show a kid how to walk to a certain building that was built 2020, and with that the street was also renovated. We "walk", "walk", are nearly there... and then in one step, the sidewalks disappear, street turns into dirt road, instead of houses there are trees, bushes, wilderness - we don't know anymore where we are! The 2023 Google street view car hadn't gone as far (although the street was better) as the 2011 one.
Yes, a lot of places don't get updates. If you're way out in the country or in a small town in a state nobody visits, you might have 2008 imagery forever.
A relative and her husband lived in an apartment building in Portland, OR, for a few months.
The initial street view shows a parking lot with a strip mall where the apartment building is supposed to be. Then, as I moved around in the image, using the Google arrows, all of a sudden the apartment building appears. It was like the old and new images were stitched together.
I once looked up my grandparents old house on google earth. When I did I could see my grandfathers truck and his dog laying on the driveway, which was my grandfathers bestfriend. Back in the summer of 2016 my grandfather passed away, shortly after so did his dog Cotton. You can still see my grandfathers truck and his dog till this day in 2025. It’s a ghost frozen in time and a good way to remember and reminisce on my childhood memories.
My wife has been captured twice in the last 3 years on Google Street View. Both times wearing the same work shirt (she has 10+ shirts that she rotates between and only works 3 days a week at a local hospital)
Slightly better than a nat 20. Noice.
"My wife has been captured twice..." I thought you were going to explain how she was kidnapped and Google maps found her.
woah
@@WhatDoesMyChannelNameMean lol
When i looked up where I live last time, Google caught a picture of our old dog Zoey pooping out in the side yard. It makes me smile every time I think of it, she was a funny little dog and I like to think she would think it was hilarious.
WEll, I think it's hilarious! 😄Good for you, Zoey!
Now THAT is a legacy worth remembering! 💩😂
I came across your video today. Not only did I enjoy it, but I subscribed to your channel.
I recently encountered a Google camera car at a traffic light. I don't care that I'm 61, I took get joy at making a fool of myself while telling the whole world HELLO ( 👋from Amarillo, Texas, USA)
Good job, Joe Scott! 👍👏👊
Last time I was lost in a dangerous place: Somewhere in the cellphone/GPS dead zone on the border of NH and ME I had to ask directions at a "gas station" .It was getting dark and the only business I had seen in a long time in an area was nothing but dense trees and houses with Deliverance vibes.
The place only sold diesel and the general store was a sad grocery / taxidermist office / a video rental (with a missive adult section).
To this day I have no idea where I was, but the ZZ Top looking dude inside was super nice and helpful.
So happy for you for a moment I thought the story was going to have a grim ending 😅
This sounds like the beginning of a horror film.
You need to see: House of 1000 Corpses by Rob Zombie
Was he a sharp dressed attendant?
... i may actually know exactly the location you're talking about. i ended up in a VERY similar sounding place about a year ago, in that very same area. if it is the same place, i can fully agree that it would be super creepy when it starts getting dark. especially knowing that basically EVERYTHING over there shuts down when it gets dark.
The nonchalance in your voice saying "That's just how it is now" is eery. That really sends chills down my spine. Orwell couldn't even imagine what's normal today and it's honestly a miracle we dont already live in a distopian hellscape.
Maybe we do and we're just not aware of it. A frog slowly boiling to death kind of thing.
@@tapewerm6716 We are but you can't see it. I guess it is hard for anyone younger than 50 to see this, but we old people remember what freedom and privacy was.
@@WillyKling As someone who grew up in the eighties, I would MUCH rather the sort of shit a lot of adults did when I was a kid was public knowledge. Some people don't deserve privacy.
@@johnathanmartin1504 Everyone deserves privacy and freedom. You can fight crime without having 24/7 surveillence on the entire population. I know, because this is how policing worked back then, and we had less crime.
@@WillyKling I'm right there with ya Willy. Born in 1968
This is so fun. Years ago, when Smartphones were new and cost an outrageous $250, my friends and I traveled to NeitherWorld Haunted House in Atlanta in a big van. We had all been making fun of one guy for spending so much money on a new phone until we got lost! He pulled out his expensive new toy and gave us turn by turn directions to our destination. After that, everyone in the van wanted one of those phones!
I don't have a smart-phone, but a flip-phone.My $50 GPS that I plugged into my car's cigarette lighter also navigates like Google Maps.
Sorry you didn't find waldo. He's called Wally in the UK.
In Portugal too.
Yup, Wally in Australia too
😂😂😂
Waldy here in New Zealand
@tomatoisred6966 that's halfway between Wally and Waldo 😂
One of my favorite Street View stories was an early street view car driving into a military base just mapping barracks etc. When the Base Commander found out and saw it, he flipped his lid. After that, Google removed such maps and also began blurring military bases from aerial view.
Joe, I'd love to see you cover that story and/or things like it -- when new tech completely outpaced the world around it.
Great video as always! Love you, Joe!
A couple of years ago Google Earth wasn’t as accurate, as it is today apparently. They blurred a village half a mile from a military radar tower, and I seem to remember the tower itself was still visible. I just checked, and both are visible now. The new replacement tower even has a marking stating it’s a radar post.
The nearby military airfield is still blurred, but you can still make out the runways, so it’s obviously an airfield.
When I entered the US military, even the base phone book was Confidential. It is insane that Google thought it was ok to just take pictures of everything inside a military base.
Wow. I grew up on military bases in the USA and other countries and it was always on tight security. How the heck did Google get in?
Who was on duty on the gate that let the car on the base? That could never happen on the bases I've lived or been on. 🤔
Dude, you don't know old. When i went to college before I went into the military, you could only access a computer by punch cards or magnetic tape. Circa 1974
So, you're telling me I am older than you? Yes. Yes, I am.
I was in college from 1963-67. The only computer was in the office.
17:00 Rex Heuermann has not in fact been found guilty, his trial hasn't even started yet. He probably *will* be found guilty, but it's important to get that right.
why hasn’t the trial started yet 😔
@@LambentLight00 I don't know the case, but typically in the US such things take so long because the DA wants as tight a case as possible against the defendant. Also COVID caused a lot of cases to just be put on hold until a later date.
I think the police are still looking at new victims and new evidence. This case is super interesting and has a million twists and turns. Many videos about this online. He is the suspected Long Island serial killer out of New York, USA. U can look it up, too much to tell you here. ❤✌🏻@LambentLight00
Yes I picked this falsehood up as well and I am in Australia and know more about this case . I believe that the defense is seeking a change of venue.
I came here to say this. Lol
"Do human-sized pigeons eat human-sized trash?" Yes, it's called McDonalds.
The amount of stories I’ve seen with people with dementia driving into the water is astounding. DO NOT LET PEOPLE WUTH DEMENTIA DRIVE
That CIA double-take-double-turn is pure UA-cam genius. I see you, Joe Scott 😂
My job requires alot of driving to peoples houses. Been doing it since 1997. My kid asked how we got there before iPhones. Good question. I went to the garage and pulled out my old atlas. Basically told her it was a huge map, cut up into pages. Looked up the street in the back, that told u the page, then from there you found it and saw on the map you had to go.
It really was a pain in the ass, but that's what we did.
I have a very keen sense of direction. My kids, however, need GPS to leave the neighborhood
I was a realtor from 2006-2009. Realtor MLS listings used to have a “grid#” which related to a book of maps called Mapsco. There was a page#, column, then row. Each page had a grid. The listing would say “247C1” - page 247 row c column 1 to find a small area. Then you’d drive there and figure out the rest.
That’s not even 20 years ago.
Ditto. I used to have a whole pile of ADC maps for all sorts of counties and areas I'd use to look up places and then manually map the routes to get there, hoping roads hadn't changed since the map was printed. Some recent (young) employees have tried to cancel work because their phones were broken/data used up so they couldn't "get to the job" because they couldn't use the GPS. 🤣
I am the same way. Grew up navigating with paper maps and if you are covering a large distance in the middle of nowhere and needed to know where you were, stop at any labeled intersection and find that on a map becuase 999 out of 1000 times thier is only one place those roads intersect, X marks the spot thats where you were. I have ran into only two places where a very old state highway that was built in a long curve around something and later a new higway or an interstate made a strait path and the old highway was still in use and the interstate crossed it twice but even then I was not lost I just noticed it in passing and then later looked at the map and verified my observation.
Ah yes, the old Thomas Guide.
I drove a cab in '06 & '07 and this is exactly how we found people's addresses. You could buy stand-alone GPS devices at that time, but they were super expensive, so none of us cab drivers had one. And mapping apps were definitely not available on phones yet -- hell, smartphones were barely a thing. The iPhone was released in '07, and Blackberrys had been around for a bit, but both of those were too expensive for a cab driver to own at the time. Plus I don't think they had mapping apps with GPS on them that early.
For years my oldest son and I were sitting together cuddling on the block retaining wall at our local park. When I found the street view picture my son was about 15 irl, and he was just a toddler in the street view. I went back to that picture many many times until they finally changed it. Just a random moment of our life frozen in time.
5:56 In the UK it’s called “where’s Wally” so Wally has been found, the search for Waldo continues…
He is in Vancouver now! On a roof :D
Saw him while I was on a flight over the city. Least I can say is I was pretty surprised and happy when I saw him haha I was so excited but was traveling alone so I couldn’t share my excitement with anyone hahah
Oh my god, the story about the old lady that wandered off right under her husband's eye made me cry like a baby man...
I just watched one of those mystery disappearance stories. The lady was a mountaineer. After all kinds of searches, someone finally found her at the bottom of a ravine. She fell and died. That was it. Apparently, those deep crevices where people fall are often difficult to get to casually. So it makes sense to me that that little old lady was in some crevice people just didn't go to because it was dangerous to get to.
This actually happened to me! lol I was working as a front end manager for a Walmart market in Poplar Bluff Missouri and was on break. I went out front and sat next to the building to have a cigarette when the google street view car drove by! It’s since been updated so it’s not there any more, but it was fun to see myself on google street view for a while!❤
having a cigarette no less!
In Street View, click on the date the image was captured and you'll be able to view previous images of that location.
Pre Google Earth my friend's dad was a cartographer and aerial photographer. He was commissioned by the state gov of our state in Australia to find the exact map locations of a bunch of small, country schools.
They began by flying over the regions where the schools were but found that it was hard to twll the difference between little country schools and large country properties until they realised that most of the schools would have a cricket pitch. So they looked for properties with a long rectangular bit of grass/dirt that stood out from all the other grass or dirt.
Just one of the professions that has changed dramatically since Google Earth/streetview.
Surveying in general is a nearly dead profession now. Most companies and governments just use google for that information. Even when they do need or want boots on the ground it's often just an intern with a laser pointer and a tablet.
In the late 80's, I literally got lost driving home. We had just moved and it was late at night and I took a wrong turn. I got lost for a good hour. I am so glad we have google maps on our phones today. I just moved again recently and use maps to find my way around every day.
nice ad, google
@@CatAywa The entire video is about google lol Even better ad!
@@jessicahannah2522 true that
Thanks!
That pigeon mask picture looks like an awesome album cover
Did u ever think you’d hear, I want to be friends with the pigeon ppl and it not be creepy 😂
It’s a kind of art collective in a pretty artsy area of Tokyo. They also have a gallery of photos of them wearing pigeon masks in other places and clubs.
Google maps steered me wrong in the mountains of Alberta. I was trying to take a shortcut and followed the voice directions, ended up in the dark, on a ever smaller forestry service road, in the snow, with three pets in the car, and no cell service. I had to go by memory to find my way out. Boy was I scared. I reached a hotel and told the tale, they said it had happened before.
In South Africa is been a big thing that people follow Google maps and end up in areas that are really dangerous if you're not local. Lots of tourists have gotten hijacked/mugged. If I'm not mistaken there have been a few lawsuits against Google.
Where I am from (Argentina) people got killed because of following directions through dangerous places (like favellas in the night).
Where I live (Spain), people got killed for, advised on Google maps, crossing bridges that have been out of use for years, but not closed (when the bridge finally collapsed, people from there told that they have been writing to Google for years to take it out from directions. They never got a response).
Always keep a blanket and water in your vehicle, especially in areas with lots of snow and not much cell service. And food too. But water is more important. And keeping warm. Careful running your motor unless you are positive the muffler isn't blocked by snow. And if u run it, don't go to sleep if it's snowing. I wouldn't even if it wasn't. Because what if it started snowing while asleep? Especially with your precious pet babies in there!
3 years ago I moved to the Western NC mountains, to a rural area completely new to me, from Atlanta. Here, it literally told me to turn off the side of a mountain on an imaginary air road. And anytime I ever want to go north from my house, it tells me to take a nonexistent road to the highway. I've given feedback several times but they never update it. The worst thing that following Google Maps ever did in Atlanta was have me do a stupid on-off, on-off thing with highways, not try to kill me.
Those events are not unusual. Forest roads can get you killed in the winder.
21:00 every other (international) company would’ve get sued big time by collecting data like that
Joe you really need to do something about this you’re putting your viewers at risk, that sponsor transition was so smooth I could have slipped and broken my ankle
had us in the first half ngl
That wasn't Waldo, it's Wally if he's in the UK.
What I find very annoying, is that google not only blurs vehicle number plates, but also street names and house numbers.
This makes it difficult, even impossible to navigate, or locate where you are.
.
I've lived in my house since 2014, we moved in when it was a new-build. We've watched it over the years on Google maps go from a field, to a building site, sitting in a mud-bowl, lawns appear! Trees, bushes! The technology is so amazing, and amazing it's available for free.
For some reason, our tiny town in rural Kansas is routinely, frequently updated by Google Streetview. When we are out of town, we joke that we can check on our house live just by using Google Maps. 😅
Maybe your tiny town is used as a testing ground for Google Map updates? A small area, in a remote (but not too remote) location?
Must be a test spot or something. I found out that google seems to update major urban places before doing the rural ones. My google street view in my house currently in the city is only a few years old, updates fairly frequently. The photo of my mom’s house in a rural place is at least ten years old, before she renovated. Place looks abandoned, lol
When street view was still young, I once did a "street view walk" with a friend who was on another continent, virtually walking on streets in Rome. ❤
The only interesting thing you see if you street view my address is my cat grooming himself in the driveway. Spicy stuff.
Is its face blurred? Because my daughter’s cat’s face is.
@@kellydalstok8900 lol
Bring your cat inside ffs
Wow, some cats will do anything for international attention.
@@kellydalstok8900 that's so funny! Google is really going the extra mile to protect that cat's privacy.
But my cat's little face isn't, but our house is set pretty far back from the road unlike other houses on our street.
Maybe he's playing hide and seek 0:39
That’s what I thought too!
i thought tha too also nice pfp :0
@@thisdeath oh my gaahhh :O
Or spies/ninjas/secret agent
Dropping a deuce.
The one about the execution, it is a bit of a stretch to say it was solved due to Google Maps. A renowned investigative group Bellingcat (they investigated the poisoning of russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny) worked on this, along with tens if not hundreds of OSINT experts and enthusiasts. For the longest time they could not figure out where that “distinctive” mountain range actually was. They asked volunteers to comb through thousands of photos and topographic maps. It was an insane amount of work! They talk about this extensively on their podcast, I think it was in season 2. It’s a fascinating listen.
What podcast is this? I'd love to give it a listen, fascinating story!
@@mnxs it’s called simply “The Bellingcat Podcast”. I wish they had more episodes, there are only two seasons so far.
@@alisaarama5585 Thank you so much! That podcast is really, really well made. I've already listened to the first episode about this, ah, _incident,_ and dear god it's such a horrible story...
But they're some really good, amazing people in the OSINT and Bellingcat community, I'm so impressed. Subscribed.
@@mnxsI am so happy you enjoyed it) they are def worthy of a shoutout
I've heard of Bellingcat. They are far more worthy of respect than Google.
Yes I did watch Sigmond and the Sea Monsters! That's why my '72 Super Beetle is named Sigmond. ;)
Yes I remember it too
Some of us remember, even if we preferred H.R. Puffenstuff.
Johnny Whittaker for the win.
Every day after school when I was a kid! Along with H.R. Puffenstuff, and Land of the Lost.
The Banana Splits!
Last time I got lost in a dangerous place was October 22, 2005. (Only reason I know the exact date is because it was my girlfriend’s birthday.) I had to drive to Dearborn early that morning to take the PCAT, a super important test for the future of my career. I printed the directions out and drove it the day before to be sure; it was an hour drive roughly. Well, when I drove that morning, the freeway had been closed overnight, and it forced me into a bad area of Detroit and I had no idea where to go. There were people walking in the streets like a zombie movie, and cars on cinder blocks with the tires removed, grocery stores with barbed wire on the roof. I finally got directions from some elderly guys in a diner and made it to my test. Then after the test I had to do that again on the way back, I had no smart phone or maps.
Detour: Escape from Detroit
I'd watch this story on the big screen
I remember carrying a dime for emergency pay phone calls. This is an amazing advance in our lifetimes!
I did see a mini doc that showed a small town in japan where the locals ,after a wild life research scientist started wearing a pigeon helmet to see if he could get closer and feed the pigeons better idk I don't remember why he started it but the locals found it fun and interesting and to my knowledge they hold events on certain days were the locals along with children feed the pigeons wearing these pigeon masks. idk something along those lines, it is a thing and not just for the Google camera lol
The last time I got lost in a dangerous place was when I was a medical student on an obstetrics and gynecology attachment - not even an echo!
Yes, I studied in Liverpool.
Was not expecting anyone to talk about privacy, but glad you did! Sadly Big Tech companies want us to think that our only choices are privacy or lack of technology/innovation, but that's not always true. Sure, Street View requires us to expect to be seen in public, but Google didn't have to scrape our WiFi data in the process. I hope in the future more people will realize that companies need to be reasonable and kept in check and start taking their privacy more seriously. Great video though, Joe, it's awesome to see how much your channel has grown since the early days! I always enjoy when you've put out a new upload!
Reminds me of how Europeans have more Internet rights than the 'so called free world' here out west... meanwhile some people have been led to believe that it is the 2nd amendment that ensures one's rights, rather than the rule of law and the consent of the governed... It absolutely must be addressed going forward, but all paths lead to systemic policy changes and the only way to push forward is to get involved!
0:10 - Biblically accurate angel?
BE NOT AFRAID
be not afraid of the google maps car
You ARE joking, aren't you?
I thought they were fire wheels with eyes? Set it on fire and I think you got yerself an angel!
Mostly I just wanted to say that last sentence.
@@OzymandiasWasRight the fire wheels with eyes are ophanim or Thrones. There are also different types mentioned in the Bible, like Seraphim and Cherubim.
I'm so grateful that Google street view has the option to go back to different years. There's a photo of my mum talking to my neighbour on street view from a few years ago. My mum passed away in 2022 and I just love that she is memorialised on street view forever
I was hoping to see that well known meme with a man wearing an orange jumpsuit walking down a lonely country road with the caption "Google Earth street view may catch you escaping prison, but they'll still blur out your face because Google ain't no snitch."
I also remember Sigmund, but I never watched it. However, there was something similar in the show Kolchak: The Night Stalker tv series with some swamp thingy that lived in the sewer.
i used to watch that show, but i can't remember any details of a particular episode. however the guy reminded me of some irwin allen type show like lost in space or voyage to the bottom of the sea
@@ronblack7870 Sid & Marty Krofft put out some crazy kids shows in the 70's -- H.R Pufnstuff, Land of the Lost, etc.
I went to look at my mother's house on Google Street view when it became available in that area and there she was, hanging a towel out of a window to dry!
There’s a picture of my grandma sweeping her garage on google maps, and she laughs every time we show it to her. She’s not dead yet, but she will be immortalized there.
"The Greater Good"
Back in college we would go on burn rides late at night through rural Pennsylvania. The goal was to smoke until you got lost and then smoke until you found your way back. There were certain rules like no hits on roads with a center line, etc.
it was pretty handy for figuring out the local area and how to navigate roads in general. Figuring out little things like that the color of a street sign means different things, paying attention to the little markers along the roads, knowing that farmers need access to fields so there must be a way around. All type of stuff. Man, fun to get high and lost too.
17:28 AHHH that’s exactly his victim type. 90% of them are brown hair, and he wrote down “small is good” in his murder preparation document
Maybe but he was probably trolling for victims and talked to several prospective victims before deciding on one.
It might be good to note the correct information about RH ,the suspected killer. He has been arrested, and is in jail pending trial. Has not yet been convicted.
Speaking of being seen from 'space', I'm still reeling from finding the blue asbestos tailings in Whittenoom Australia on Google Maps and Earth. Insane.
Last time I got lost I was in the woods at an old cabin with my family. I went on a hike and got lost. I walked in circles for 2 hours, always somehow coming back the what seem like the same place. After 2 hours I gave up and went in the opposite direction and I kid you not, I was 20 feet for the cabin.... I was so embarrassed...
I believe you because I had a similar experience. Got lost walking in the woods but was actually so close to my destination.
It’s not all that uncommon actually. That’s why it’s so important to always take water with you no matter how short of a hike you’re planning.
@@kathyt2108and a whistle and a phone etc
MapQuest really dropped the ball back in the day.
Who else remembers printing maps out on paper
@@ben_spiller 🙋🏾♂️
@@ben_spillerStill have one. A keepsake for when it was just a nice, uncrowded stretch of road, before it became the toll road form hell.
@@ben_spillerstill have a bunch in my keepsake box from road trips I took w/ friends. The handwritten notes on them are the best part.
@@ViraL_FootprinT.ex.e IIRC, they got bought by AOL and that signaled the end of MapQuest...
"They later found that minivan on street view at HIS PARENTS' HOUSE in Texas."
Why did they never bother to include his parents' house in their initial search?
Always happy to hear those drums play
And the chair spin! It cracks me up that I love the drums and chair spin. Clearly, I am a simple woman with simple needs.
YES... He's back 😊
Amazing we campaigned to get the chair spin back 😀
Why are we here in this life? Why do we die? What will happen to us after death?
@@denomic1280 right!!!!!
Joe, that "Love you guys, take care" helped get me through two years of pandemic. Thanks for being you.
This is by far my favorite channel ta binge before I go to sleep
19:07 imagine getting caught for war crimes because of google and facebook
Or that mafia boss who escaped from prison, being fugitive for 20 years, changing identy, living a low profile life and not even contacting his family for a decade as a precaution just to be caught in 2 decades later because of a random Street view picture and not because of him doing something or slipping up to give himself away. That must have hurt so bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was caught considering who he is and what he's done, but he probably got existential crisis after that.
In Germany, terrorists of the “Rote Armee Fraktion” have been arrested decades after their attacks because of exactly that.
Google Street view captured my late grandpa sitting outside wearing a yellow tshirt but due to constant update, I never got glimpse of it again(and the house was sold after 2-3 years of his passing, so I never thought of searching it).
You can view photos from previous Streetview passes, not just the latest one.
@@AssaultedPeanut
Yep, I found this feature.
You should have taken a screenshot.
You can actually see past views captured! Down at the bottom is a date selection. Try it, you can still see him!
I used to be on street view in 2018 walking home from school I should see if I can find itnwith the reverse search thing
There a street view image of my friend in a complete panic by the side of the road, with her car's hood open and the engine is on fire 😂
The car was on its last leg anyway, and nobody was hurt.
6:57 "I'm Old Gregg!!!!"
If you look in the background, you can see a bottle of Bailey's sitting next to a shoe.
"have you ever drunk baileys from a shoe?" 👾
would you like to see my downstairs mix-up?
Easy there fuzzy little man peach
Exactly what I yelled at the screen, right before being disappointed that Joe went in another direction.
"when was the last time you were lost in a dangerous place?"
me : *laughs in introvert*
high five brother
I feel like you don't have privacy in public. That's why it's public.
Great, now I have to watch Hot Fuzz again. Thanks, Joe!
It's for the greater good.
One of us. One of us.
@@mrfishbulb7187 The greater good!
@@mrfishbulb7187The Greater Good
Same, lol
One time I found my mom's literal doppelganger, I thought it was my mom, but I was on street view in Russia. She's never been to Russia.
...that you know of.
@@EricRedbear 😂😂😂 actually she was adopted 🤔
On street view there was a guy walking down our street who looks very like, but is not, my husband. He was a friend of a friend and lived nearby. A few years later he became my daughters' maths teacher (twins). I told them that's the guy from street view. They were really weirded out. Turns out they had never believed it wasn't their dad.
I grew up in San Francisco. My dad’s boyfriend taught me how to use Google Earth, and my dad was even featured for a while crossing the street near our house on street view. Love and respect street view.
5:44 if he's found in London that means we found Wally, as he was only renamed Waldo for American publication. Somewhere out there the US Waldo is still in hiding...
yep and the Australian Wally
Fun video!!
I must have missed the announcement/talk, but I’m very happy to see the chair spin return. When I hear the bongos, I get Maslowed every time
My dog got out once and the google street view car went by, she chased it for a bit then went back home. They even blurred 🫥 her face HA! she has since passed. But every now and then I go to it just to laugh. She was a sweet girl.
Screenshot it, they update every few years
@ I did I have it saved on my favorites.
I remember Sigmund and watched it too many moons ago? Oh, and ouch on the Ask Jeeves search engine lol.
Ahhh you had the perfect lineup to say it was "a mountain of mountain bikes"