Panopticon

October 25, 2011 1:13 PM

MapCrunch, which transports you to a random location in Google Street View, has been featured on the blue before, but now it sports a selection of geographically refining tools and almost two thousand strange, lovely, and occasionally moving views submitted by users and curated by the shadowy "Nick."

A more subversive but less interactive selection may be found at Jon Rafman's 9-eyes (previously)

posted by theodolite (15 comments total)

This is really cool, but is there an easy way to link this back to google maps? I'm finding interesting places, but it's several jumps for me to figure out what I'm looking at. I.e. highlight address-->search google-->what's here-->wikipedia or some other source.
posted by Big_B at 1:32 PM on October 25, 2011

MUST. RELOCATE. TO SCANDINAVIA.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:40 PM on October 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Man, every time I think I'm tired of the world the way it is, there's something on the Internet that changes my mind.
posted by editrixx at 1:48 PM on October 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

MUST. RELOCATE. TO SCANDINAVIA.

I usually turn off the "Norway" button because otherwise I always end up searching for visa information and Pimsleur tapes.
posted by theodolite at 1:49 PM on October 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Graffiti? All those cute children on the St. Rose de Lima wall in Brazil - and across the street, the usual ugly tagging defaces another wall.
posted by Cranberry at 1:50 PM on October 25, 2011

OOPS! IN Norway, the camera took a picture of its shadow.
posted by Cranberry at 1:54 PM on October 25, 2011

I hit up Mapcrunch all the time when I'm feeling a little too local -- just click for a random place until I hit someplace that looks interesting, then 'drive' around for an hour or so. I was cruising through some spectacular mountains and fjords in Northern Finland just the other day, and I remember the place almost as if I'd actually been there.

Google streetview is the single most mindblowing 'we're living in the future' thing that exists, for me. I love it. And I so wish I had unlimited funds and time to just drive all those roads (in an emissions-free vehicle, if possible) for real.

My dream is that the technology develops sufficiently before I die that cruising down the roads of streetview actually looks and feels as smooth and simulation-y as a video game. Oh, I wish that so hard.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:24 PM on October 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

This is great. Now I don't have to hold peg man and close my eyes as I squiggle my mouse around and drop him "randomly".
posted by Defenestrator at 4:45 PM on October 25, 2011

Oh oh oh oh I got Antarctica! I feel like I won the lottery!

glad I don't have anything to do tonight
posted by ghostbikes at 5:12 PM on October 25, 2011

oh crap I copypasta'd the wrong link and lost my Antarctica :(
posted by ghostbikes at 5:16 PM on October 25, 2011

This is really cool, but is there an easy way to link this back to google maps?

I take it you're talking about the "Gallery" view? If you click on the icon for a perma-link and then follow that link, you get it in the standard MapCrunch view which includes the zoomable map in the bottom right hand corner.

That's not exactly "easy" but it's better than what it sounds like you're doing.
posted by GeckoDundee at 5:37 PM on October 25, 2011

I quit when I was taken to a view of Felch, Michigan.

Stay classy, Mapcrunch.
posted by yellowcandy at 5:45 PM on October 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Holy shit! The first random click took me to just around the corner from where I lived as a kid in Paris. That triggered a blast of childhood memories, believe you me.
posted by Kattullus at 5:51 PM on October 25, 2011

I quit when I was taken to a view of Felch, Michigan.

Stay classy, Mapcrunch.

Funny, I got Fuk Man Road in Hong Kong as one of my first random images.
posted by carrienation at 9:12 PM on October 25, 2011

The FSM! It's real!
posted by titus-g at 1:52 PM on October 26, 2011