RSS Feeds
Online
Google Street View Becomes Google Bag View in Alaska
Posted by Addy Dugdale at 10:40 PM on May 8, 2008
One of the occupational hazards of Google Street View is, I guess, having the camera obscured by something. It could be a pterodactyl, perhaps, flying low for a closer view, it could be a giant Monty Python-style animated brogue homing in on the car as if it were a roach ripe for the squishing. Or it could be a plastic bag. One minute it's dancing around, American Beauty-style, the next it's spread-eagled over the camera rather like an over-amorous spinster at a barn dance. This is what College Road in Fairbanks, Alaska, looks like, according to Google Street View. [Google Maps via Google Sightseeing]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Mapper99
Posted May 9, 2008 2:33 AM
Google also censored seedy areas of Chicago with a sack of some kind:
http://streetviewgallery.corank.com/tech/story/google-has-censored-most-of-Southside-
frndlybnny
Posted 11:16 PM 8/5/08
No, no: see, the Google camera zoomed in a little too far: that's a glimpse of the quantum foam.
frndlybnny
Addy Dugdale
Posted 11:09 PM 8/5/08
@Elliuotatar: Thanks, I've corrected it.
Addy Dugdale
liveinvt
Posted 11:02 PM 8/5/08
People live in Alaska?!
liveinvt
Elliuotatar
Posted 10:49 PM 8/5/08
Don't you mean Minnie Street?
Also, it's only that one block, no bag at the intersections in either direction. Oddly no bag visible flying towards the camera at either either.
Elliuotatar
flyboy
Posted 10:48 PM 8/5/08
maybe it looks like that - a giant sheet obscuring the new drilling operations?
flyboy
Galley
Posted 11:42 PM 8/5/08
We call those "urban tumbleweeds".
Galley
scarbrtj
Posted 11:34 PM 8/5/08
@frndlybnny: Spend a lot of time at the Planck scale, do we?*
*this joke courtesy a really small wormhole
scarbrtj
Isaac
Posted 11:32 PM 8/5/08
@Elliuotatar: That's not quite true. The bag ends at the intersection to the west, but it goes on for quite a while to the east.
[maps.google.com]
Isaac
packetsniffer
Posted 12:11 AM 9/5/08
This is just great. But it begs the question, is Google even bothering to check their work? We've had the cockroaches, the accidental driving up someones driveway, etc.
BTW, Addy, "spread-eagled"... I think you mean "spread-eagle".
packetsniffer
Yifkong
Posted 12:05 AM 9/5/08
"It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes"
Yifkong
frigg
Posted 11:52 PM 8/5/08
Alternatively, this is the site of Eric Schmidt's pied-a-terre.
frigg
dingus
Posted 11:50 PM 8/5/08
Ironically, the bag used to contain ice from a supermarket.
dingus
Barry99705
Posted 12:33 AM 9/5/08
I still think it's neat that my car made it in those images. Don't know what's up with the bag. I don't recognize the colors for any we have. I just wish they picked a day when it wasn't raining. Like sometime in the summer. Looks like these were taken sometime in late August, early September.
Barry99705
farcedude
Posted 1:00 AM 9/5/08
Heh, funny thing is my I used to live five blocks from where that was taken. Sad that they didn't exactly pick the best conditions to take pictures once they took the bag off, either.
farcedude
Gann
Posted 12:46 AM 9/5/08
That's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. On google street view.
Gann
male roof blower (CFB)
Posted 1:38 AM 9/5/08
I wonder if this guy got his pay docked for this.
male roof blower (CFB)
NDub
Posted 1:38 AM 9/5/08
I live on 23rd & Cowelles. Not far from there.
NDub
BigDanInTX
Posted 1:32 AM 9/5/08
@Gann: Beat me to it. Damn.
BigDanInTX
four12
Posted 2:29 AM 9/5/08
I lived in Fairbanks for 25 years and @farcedude is right... having the bag over the camera was the right thing at the right time.
four12
Mnaira
Posted 3:28 AM 9/5/08
OMG teh ultimate urban car in fron of google campus [tinyurl.com]
Mnaira
MaiaMemnon
Posted 2:27 AM 9/5/08
Comment on Google Street View Becomes Google Bag View in Alaska Actually, this is not the only error. I live in Fairbanks and was surprised to find 1st Avenue is also under a bag. near Cushman Street. I think the kids were tired of putting soap in the fountain downtown.
MaiaMemnon
packetsniffer
Posted 4:04 AM 9/5/08
@MaiaMemnon:
Why did you announce which article you were commenting on?
packetsniffer
Margatron
Posted 8:45 AM 9/5/08
Perhaps it's a secret military base?
Margatron
NDub
Posted 9:32 AM 9/5/08
And by the way, that's a Holaday gas station bag, for the person who was wondering what kind...
NDub
xkl
Posted 11:56 AM 9/5/08
thats in several random places.. but believe me just the fact of having gg street view here in the banks was already a reason for celebration..
xkl