Geography This past few days, Google Street View was updated. This isn't entirely unexpected. For it to continue its usefulness, Google needed to provide a relatively accurate picture of what the user might expect to find when looking at a particular road.
It also continues to remind us of how the world as it is now is so vulnerable to change. One of my favourite spots was on Allerton Road in Liverpool where in Google's reality, Woolworths was still open and NTL Buses wasn't owned by Stagecoach.
View Larger Map
Now, as you can see, the Woolworth has been replaced by the Tesco Express which moved into its shell (one of several hundred in Liverpool) (seriously, there's another one at the other end of Allerton Road) and the NTL Bus too. But it still captures an older time, July 2012 according to the date. That empty shop is now a Costa Coffee (one of several hundred in Liverpool) (seriously, there's another one at the other end of Allerton Road).
It's a pity Google isn't creating a legacy or archival version of Street View, perhaps with an option when seeing each of these sections to return to the older image. If there is I can't find it. But Street Map by its nature will continue to be a rolling record of the past. It's still a place where the Blockbuster on Edge Lane is only waiting to open rather than closed for good:
View Larger Map
We can only guess what it'll be when next Google sends its camera car past. Probably a Tesco. Or Costa Coffee.
No comments:
Post a Comment