Saturday, November 14, 2009

Beam Me Down, Google...

...there's life down there.





I learned on Mexconnect.com's forums the other day that Google Earth now has Street View for Guadalajara. I have to admit the Guadalajara aspect didn't excite my interest, but I was really thrilled that Google Earth had this feature. The poster helped me out by explaining how to enable Street View in your Google Earth browser. Open the panel on the left side and look under "layers" for "street view", then check the box.
(You can visit Ajijíc and Chapala, if you wish. I haven't tried San Miguel de Allende yet.)


Areas which have been photographed for Street View have little camera icons up and down the street. Mousing over the icon reveals the street name. Corner intersections are indicated with names of both streets.


You can click the camera icons to reveal a small photo, then click the link below to open in Street View. Or, just double click the camera icon to swoop directly down to street level. This is often vertiginous and not for those prone to los mareos. Once at street level, you can drag the image to either right of left and then navigate your way up and down the street. There's some limited zoom in-zoom out capability. To exit, click "exit photo" in the upper right of the screen. This does not return you to your previous, regular view very well. I have to zoom out and correct the North arrow on the navigation tools to reorient myself.


Instead of Guad, I went zooming off at high speed to México, D.F. There I homed in to one of my favorite areas of the city, Colonia Roma. Once I "arrived", I navigated to Avenida Álvaro Obregón, locating various well known landmarks such as Casa Lamm, Hotel Colonia Roma (budget), Hotel Milán (moderate), Hotel Stanza (Executive Class). The latter is located at the corner of Álvaro Obregón and Calle Morelia, with the Jardín Pushkin to the east side. (You can see the street tianguis and food stalls there.) About three blocks up Calle Morelia, at the corner of Calle Colima, I located my favorite hamburger stand. (pictured below) With minimal maneuvering, I was able to get a good Street View, full screen picture and save it.





With a little trial and error maneuvering (the direction you are looking is not always clear.), I then navigated several blocks to the off-center, second floor, shiny chrome and formica restaurant, Las Costillas d' Fuentes, at the corner of Calle Mérida and Calle Durango. Nº 58, to be exact. It's on the first floor up in this modern building, pictured below. It's a slightly odd but pleasant, low priced restaurant specializing in charcoal grilled meats, especially the eponymous rib steaks. Coming soon on My Mexican Kitchen.





This is another great tool enabling us to explore the world and its wonders, thanks to the generous development of the Google Corp.

6 comments:

Tancho said...

Be careful, they may visit Las Cuevas.
Lot of people NOB are ticked off, seems they feel it is an invasion of privacy.
I guess they don't know about NSA and Echelon.....

Don Cuevas said...

Tancho, I noted that when at street view level, at least along the streets of México, DF, the faces of people were fuzzed out.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

Babs said...

A friend showed me how to do this a few weeks ago. I was astounded. I couldn't see my house at street level but I could see my roof top terrace and the guest house along with the trees etc. How cool is that? I'm beginning to decide that technology is wonderful.......ha, at least when I can figure it out.

GlorV1 said...

This is a good sight too. Sounds like you had fun exploring the uses of what Google has to offer. Enjoy.

Leslie Harris said...

Google's maps of Mexico has had vast improvements in the last couple of months. We last looked at the map in August and were surprised to see rooftops. I checked today after reading your blog and am happy to report that there are now street names on the map! I was able to locate my house thanks to the large blue circus tent in the empty lot behind my house.

Michael Dickson said...

Just took a nice look at the house in Houston I gave my last ex-wife about four months after the divorce. Valentine´s gift. I see she has a Honda CR-V, color red, but it´s older than mine. Serves her right.

Google Earth is getting downright spooky.