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Yesterday's launch of Google Street View created a new wave of digital tourism, with most of us starting with our home address and then scouring the mostly anonymous bodies nearby for flickers of recognition. As is par for the course with the service, the camera sometimes captures some unusual, quirky, and mysterious events. Here are some of our local favourites (so far).
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I of course checked out my street yesterday, amazed at how often the FR misidentifies the REAR wheel covers as a face to be blurred.
What the hell is that future-mobile in front of the Body Shop?
Looks like a (Canadian-made) Campagna T-Rex.
Heh - love that on the photo of Fauxreel's "Unaddressed" series (second row, first on left) the face detection system automatically blurred out the stencil's face...
But, where's Waldo?
Check out the labour-unrest-frozen-in-time at the foot of the Don Roadway:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Yonge+St+&ll=43.65168,-79.347403&spn=0,359.980946&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.651767,-79.347492&panoid=2OqnysyjVDnsnbpIwjBNJQ&cbp=12,21.89,,0,5.61
The Torontoist slideshow setup kinda sucks.
yeah, it does.
Anyone know how often this thing's updated?
Not as frequently as some would like to think.
Yeah, that made me laugh. Really? You wanted to see your mom waving??
Oooh, or: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=wellington+and+front,+toronto&sll=43.644884,-79.336146&sspn=0.012065,0.02723&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Front+St+E+&ll=43.654894,-79.38004&spn=0,359.97277&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.645972,-79.382398&panoid=1cF94C5XbS3AmZ-lDgXbTA&cbp=13,124.47,,0,-53.1
my favourite view of the Royal York Hotel (from the Tim Horton's across the laneway)
I thought this was funny
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&layer=c&cbll=43.658824,-79.349986&panoid=urhtf4HvRGzDkNYsg5N5Rg&cbp=12,348.35,,2,5.65&ie=UTF8&ll=43.658868,-79.349871&spn=0,359.939146&z=14
My favourite finds (that aren't above):
A billboard gets its face obscured here.
No red-light running Google car detected at Yonge and Adelaide here
A few weird transitions, because of different shots of similar areas being taken in different times:
Luminato takes over, and vanishes from, Dundas Square. (And an ad for The Hangover is replaced by one for Terminator: Salvation)
A huge Ferris wheel at Jane and Finch that, as you zoom closer, disappears. (Sorry, kids at the corner.)
NOW's (and formerly Torontoist's) Josh Errett gets caught fumbling with his camera here.
Two of my favourite pun stores, Hi Fi Fo Fum and The Loan Arranger, in their natural habitats.
And, in what's apparently a trend, a person on a motorized scooter, on the road, going the opposite direction of traffic, with a car approaching, here.
The Ontario Place pic also identifies a mislabelled street name on Google Maps -- note the street sign further down the road http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=43.65375,-79.368037&panoid=tnBHSy9CCqZCNMrwSvvdFw&cbp=12,172.92,,0,2.65&ll=43.65387,-79.368067&spn=0,359.947686&z=15
An of course Sushi Bong -- how we love you
Strange St., indeed. It looks like some sort of worm-hole!
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&layer=c&cbll=43.658824,-79.349986&panoid=urhtf4HvRGzDkNYsg5N5Rg&cbp=12,348.35,,2,5.65&ie=UTF8&ll=43.658868,-79.349871&spn=0,359.939146&z=14
That's Neil Young's tour bus!
Too bad they missed the crazy way this storefront at Gerrard and Logan used to be painted and signed: "Drunk Drivers are Lousy L♡vers," among other things. Must've been there for a while, because one of the window signs read, "Welcome to Metro."
Alas, now, it's just as abandoned, but beige. The defunct Virtualcity.ca caught it in its former state.
A little farther along the street, the problematically-named Coolies Bar and Restaurant.
It's been closed since (I think) January, but it's under renovation right now, and apparently it's about to open as one of those play places that you take your kids for birthday parties.
You reminded me of the heated debate sparked by an article using that image.
Twin CN Towers check out 52 Manitoba Dr, Toronto, Toronto Division, Ontario ( http://www.google.ca/maphp?hl=en&q=52+Manitoba+Dr,+Toronto,+Toronto+Division,+Ontario&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FbLYmQIdTUJE-w&split=0&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=16.71875,56.536561&layer=c&cbll=43.636899,-79.41262&panoid=uPVq3Nw_ZP7N3kW3yoemLA&cbp=12,73.64,,1,-3.11&hq=&hnear=52+Manitoba+Dr,+Toronto,+Toronto+Division,+Ontario&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A )
wow. what a caption on the van fire.
A few of my favourites:
If you want captured streetview of Toronto from funny people to famous places. You may try to visit this site:
http://gstreetwalker.blogspot.com
Click the label of your interest
Example: Yonge, Spadina, Queen , Funny, People etc.