Google Street View is coming to Canada

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Google will soon be coming to 11 of Canada's largest cities including Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary. The Internet giant will be driving around cities in the coming weeks to map the streets of Canada to include a street-eye view of streets, buildings and their surroundings.

The street view will provide users to help locate meeting spots, buildings and a better idea of their destination. With the added bonus of being able to see your own home on Google, many people raise privacy concerns, which Google is ready to handle. Images of people's faces and licence plates will be automatically blurred out, and any requested offensive images will be removed from the web site.

Google Street View - Canada will be added to the small list of available countries, including Australia, France and Britain. The popular service has been in use on Google for some time on mapping U.S. cities and streets for public view. Some popular street data has already been collected in Canada, where it will be made public soon, along with the 11 new major cities in Canada.

(3 replies) #1 Kevin. on 27 Mar 2009 - 03:16

While it's not perfect, Google Street View has helped me a lot when it comes to directions in unfamiliar areas. Especially since I can get a look at the surrounding area as a landmark and what to look out for.

#1.1 +dead.cell on 27 Mar 2009 - 20:41

Yep yep.

#1.2 Angel Blue01 on 27 Mar 2009 - 20:46

#1.3 alan on 29 Mar 2009 - 00:30

yea but they need more British roads

(3 replies) #2 SLeeM@N on 27 Mar 2009 - 03:33

Finally Google come to Canada! about time! It might be not the best time to do that for Montreal it's so dirty !

#2.1 Calibre on 27 Mar 2009 - 04:19

Yeah, if the other cities are anything like Calgary at this time they're covered in half-melted snow and the remnants of a winter's gravel and salt. Wait till summer!

#2.2 Xero on 27 Mar 2009 - 13:52

Even downtown Toronto can be confusing if you're not familiar. Not nearly as bad for Montreal. I thought they forgot about us. Now if we could get traffic data so I don't have to stare at that inactive button on my iPhone

#2.3 ImWatchingYou on 27 Mar 2009 - 16:32

Calibre said,

Well apaprently they already have some data collected, so it's possible that there may be some winter remnants. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Sucks for your snowy roads. Come to Vancouver

(1 reply) #3 G_0 on 27 Mar 2009 - 03:53

I wonder if I'll actually see them!

#3.1 Sam Symons Live on 27 Mar 2009 - 04:31

G_0 said,

Heh, one of the cars was parked in my old hometown (Methven, in NZ...if you find it on Google Maps, you'll see how weird it is to have a Google Street View car there) at the shop. It was pretty random seeing one there in a farming town.

(1 reply) #4 rm20010 on 27 Mar 2009 - 04:28

There's an existing street view service that snapped up most of Toronto's major streets. Can't remember what it was named, but it only showed the view of the sides of streets instead of a complete view.

#4.1 Striker317 on 29 Mar 2009 - 08:29

If you were thinking of [toronto.]virtualcity.ca, that site doesn't work anymore.

(5 replies) #5 Ji@nBing on 27 Mar 2009 - 05:24

Full city list?

#5.1 cyberdrone2000 on 27 Mar 2009 - 07:48

My guess:
-Toronto
-Montréal
-Calgary
-Ottawa
-Edmonton
-Vancouver
-Québec City
-Victoria
-Winnipeg
-Halifax
-London

#5.2 tainted_c0bra on 27 Mar 2009 - 10:06

Actually according to stats Canada the largest cities by population are as follows... (Stats Canada 2001 which is the latest test done).
1 Toronto Ontario 4,263,000
2 Montréal Quebec 3.327.000
3 Vancouver British Columbia 1,832,000
4 Ottawa Ontario 1,010,000
5 Edmonton Alberta 863.000
6 Calgary Alberta 822,000
7 Quebéc Quebec 672,000
8 Winnipeg Manitoba 667,000
9 Hamilton Ontario 624,000
10 London Ontario 399,000
11 Kitchener Ontario 383,000

Ye-ha cause I living in kitchener... but I don't think it'll make the cut cause now they're going to include halifax.

Last edited by tainted_c0bra on 27 Mar 2009 - 10:11

#5.3 profets on 27 Mar 2009 - 12:36

yeah i'm thinking it would hit hamilton before it would hit london

#5.4 Mr. Andrews on 27 Mar 2009 - 15:03

I just want St John's. Maybe they're doing mainly *somewhat* large capital cities, with a few extra big cities that aren't capitals (like Calgary)?

#5.5 tainted_c0bra on 28 Mar 2009 - 05:24

Yeah obviously "somewhat" large cities that aren't capitals makes sense. What they should do is get on a via rail and ride the country side from end to end. I went from where I live to Victoria B.C. in 2002 or 2003 can't remember exactly right now... But those where the most beautiful sites I've ever seen (with the exeption of the Adriatic/Balkan coastline).

I would rather they take beauty over population, the east coast and west coast have unmatched beauty... even some of the little places like P.E.I.

#6 Digix on 27 Mar 2009 - 05:29

lol this is going to take ages if they do whole country including rural places which hopefully they do.

#7 qdave on 27 Mar 2009 - 05:40

finally

(2 replies) #8 Anaron on 27 Mar 2009 - 08:59

It's about time. Hopefully they'll do Toronto when there's no snow.

#8.1 JahnnyBoy on 27 Mar 2009 - 15:18

Anaron said,

..or Vancouver *IF* they do Vancouver, because it seems the West Coast is usually forgotten about in this country.

#8.2 ImWatchingYou on 27 Mar 2009 - 16:32

JahnnyBoy said,

Obviously they'll do Vancouver. Will definitely help tourists during the Olympics. Top 3 cities are a no brainer.

Edit - my coworker was just telling me how he saw a sedan with 4 large SLR's on it a few months ago (in Metro Vancouver) and instantly thought Google. Who knows though.

Last edited by ImWatchingYou on 27 Mar 2009 - 16:37

(1 reply) #9 lawtai on 27 Mar 2009 - 10:58

It'll be interesting to see if any funny pictures show up.

#9.1 alan on 29 Mar 2009 - 00:32

lawtai said,

of course that goes with out saying

(5 replies) #10 Nestea_M@n on 27 Mar 2009 - 13:52

I can see it now. we should put on a show and have ourselves ride sled dogs and live in Igloo's. That would be amazing.

#10.1 +Obi Wong on 27 Mar 2009 - 14:08

hahaha i was thinking the same thing
just let some polar bears run around and we're all good

street view of toronto would be funny
just see Tim Hortons everywhere

#10.2 JahnnyBoy on 27 Mar 2009 - 15:19

Obi Wong said,

street view of toronto would be funny
just see Tim Hortons everywhere

There are more Tim's in the West than the East.

#10.3 profets on 27 Mar 2009 - 16:13

judging by this map it looks like there may be most in ontario. it was founded in hamilton, and there is a rediculous number of them around hamilton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tim_stores_wiki.png

#10.4 Mr. Andrews on 27 Mar 2009 - 19:11

I'd bet Newfoundland has the greatest concentration of Timmy's, since there aren't any outside of Corner Brook or that peninsula (Avalon peninsula) at the bottom right of the province.

#10.5 +DrunkenMaster on 28 Mar 2009 - 00:02

Nestea_M@n said,

I was just enjoying building my recent luxury igloo in Vancouver two weeks ago during the biggest snowfall this season. Did we ever get buried .... I had to wait a few hours before I decided to get off my butt before shoveling. Turns out it was already done for me.

I dare them to map Downtown during the Olympics. With all the road closures, they are sure to get it mapped pretty soon.

#11 C_Guy on 27 Mar 2009 - 15:12

Someone may want to introduce Google to Canada's Privacy Act. It's basically the exact opposite of Google's mission statement.

#12 Rohdekill on 27 Mar 2009 - 21:02

And yet not one complaint on how much fuel is wasted and pollution is created in getting the streetview. wow.

#13 zivan56 on 28 Mar 2009 - 04:41

They already have this on canpages.ca for Vancouver.

#14 sava700 on 28 Mar 2009 - 12:45

Well thats just bs... they haven't even done my city yet. Come on Google.. finish the US before you go off some where else.

#15 spacey on 28 Mar 2009 - 14:06

bah, they drove around Montreal in the WINTER! Everything is white! I really hope they got more data without the snow...

#16 boho on 30 Mar 2009 - 13:49

Oh look! a tree, and there's an another and another, look lots of trees! Trees everywhere!

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