Mysterious Anomaly on Google Street View

[orangenasturtium]

Out of curiosity, I decided to look up my home on Street View. I was a bit surprised to find that the photo is from 2008 but, even stranger, every time you move forward one click on the arrow, the image is from a different year, say a sunny summer day in 2017, then a rainy day in 2009, then, then spring flowers in 2012.

I've tried a few other locations and it is mostly all from the same date for each street. I could see how they might need to use the odd image from a previous year if something blocks the view but this is every single photo jumping forward and back in time.

AIBU to ask whether your Street View is a snapshot in time or a time warping collage? It's quite interesting to see how the street has changed but somewhat bizarre when front doors change colour, plants grow and shrink and scaffolding disappears as you move along the road

Across the road from me is a school that was built a few years ago. It's brilliant on Google St View. One minute it is a building site, then half built, then missing a bit, back to building site...
Certainly interesting.

It’s just the way Google piece the street together. As someone who had to look at streetview a lot in lockdown, I see it a lot!

It shows mine from when the previous family lived here and it was a mess out the front, embarrassing if anyone decides to look it up. My favourite bit is that they photographed a person walking past next doors house but when you click the arrow it’s just a floating head

It shows mine from when we first had DS2. I looked us up once and when MIL saw it she announced "what a shame they haven't updated it with your new car, it's so much nicer than that one".

Only MIL could find fault in Google Earth's representation of our status!

Interesting @Littlecaf I wonder why?

Our neigbourhod seems particularly jumpy. Surrounding areas all seem to be fairly consistent and up to date from 2019, with just a few roads that have a chunk from an earlier version. Then you get to our neighbourhood and it goes (per click) 08, 08, 17, 19, 08, 12, 12, 12, 09, 09, 12, 12, 12, 08, 08, 09, 08, 08, 17, 17, 08 etc (that was just one street).

I've also spotted some buildings that have been entirely blurred out. Some for obvious reasons but I am intrigued as to why a chunk of a rather dull 1930s block of flats has been erased from every angle in photos from multiple years overactive imagination.

This occasionally happens.

If you go back into the map view and drag the streetview man, do you see more than one "track"? That can happen with dual carriageways, or even somewhere streetview might have done both by car and on foot, or due to bugs. And could explain the jumpiness.

I've also spotted some buildings that have been entirely blurred out. Some for obvious reasons but I am intrigued as to why a chunk of a rather dull 1930s block of flats has been erased from every angle in photos from multiple years

You can request Google to remove your property from Streetview. If anyone comes down our street on Streetview they get a block about six houses long where there's nothing to be seen - the camera just skips past to the other end of the street.

Mine is different. I appear in some views (blurred out) and not in others. Our satellite view is also different as you zoom in - before and after some major gardening work, and then a second trampoline appears.

I use google maps quite a bit at work (and moreso at the moment with working from home). I was looking at a corner house - if you looked from the one road there was roadworks in place but then when you panned from the other road there were no roadworks to be seen - it was really strange.

Looking for directions I 'followed' a country lane click by click on street view to see if it was the one i thought it was, and there was a white van way up ahead. A click or two later and we see it ahead pulled over into a lay by and the click as we pass it sees the driver clearly pissing in the hedge!

DH and our dog are on Street View out for a walk. He thinks of it as his claim to fame because it’s in a public place that more people than average tend to look at. Bless.

Just the one track @safariboot

One of the blurred buildings (with good reason) is blurred from every angle except right outside, even views through the trees from across the park. Someone slipped up there.

I didn't know anyone could request to have their home removed. Perhaps that could explain the jumpiness. I can imagine lots of my neighbours objecting to being on Street View. Maybe they are using old images from before the request was made to avoid blurring out an entire neighbourhood. A local hotel has had their image blurred out. That seems counterintuitive!

Looks like I have found a new way to waste time when I am procrastinating...

I remember a few years back you could see two of my neighbours (aged about 10 and 12) in several different places up and down the streets- their faces were blurred but one had a distinctive t-shirt he wore all the time !! I think they must have spotted the Google car and deliberately ran around to be photographed.

A click or two later and we see it ahead pulled over into a lay by and the click as we pass it sees the driver clearly pissing in the hedge!

That's reminded me that my unpleasant ex-MIL was caught on Street View bending over to pull up a weed in her front garden so there was a lovely view of her posterior. She was not happy.

@orangenasturtium don’t you hate it when there’s a bus in front of the building?!

I have to risk getting COVID just to go look at the actual building!

My friends house is in summer then winter as you go past her gate... perhaps the second time they went past the camera didn’t work?! I’m always intrigued as to why half the time there are few cars on usually busy streets. I bet they did a load in lockdown too.

Google send streetview cars to areas in certain timeframes. Did X street 5 yrs ago, they have it scheduled in 2 years after. The normal procedure is supposed to be to change all photos to the new ones - update the whole street.
The reasons why they skip a frame (or many)

• they have too many distinctive elements on it
• too many faces - there is a limit of how many ppl should be in certain area photos
• there is something blocking the camera view (truck, van, person too close to the side of the street)
• weather is shit

I found myself on street view but then the image was updated and I disappeared. I was walking down the street so was quite a few of me lol

There’s a street in Edinburgh where half of it is a normal street and half of it is jam packed with peoples and stalls ( taken during the fringe festival). One guy is literally halfed in a photo.

Another weird thing is street view on Rightmove. Seems to be mainly commercial premises but you click on street view and find yourselves in Mrs Mogs hairdressers or a random business, it’s like a virtual escape room.

I once google car, it was about 9 years ago maybe, back when they were just starting up street view. I kept checking for ages afterwards but unfortunately I couldn't find me on the street they drove past me on. I was really disappointed! 😂

My garden backs on to the street, if you turn left and try to drive through my garden fence you used to somehow end up in my garden and there I am weeding the petunias. IDK how they managed it.

Here is a residential one, it’s not the house but inside the spooky tower next door www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71910402.html

On ours there's a massive lorry blocking our front door, but then when you move forward 1 click, the lorry disappears and the weather has completely changed.

I love street view!

It worries me the number of people who think google earth/ street view is live.

We were away a couple of weeks ago, when reports of freak flash floods started coming in on social media from our home town.

We were worrying about whether there was flooding in our part of the town and whether we should cut our holiday short to secure our home with sand bags.

My aunt text me with the brilliant suggestion of searching for our house on google earth to see if the house was flooded!

This site is great, although I seem to end up in the French countryside a lot

randomstreetview.com/