Google and Detroit

[Ray1936]

Damn.

In going through tons of old family records, I keep coming up with Detroit addresses anywhere from the 1880s through today. I try to look them up by using Google Street View [[which is otherwise a great program), but it seems as though nearly half of the City of Detroit has not been 'googlized'. They've covered the 'burbs pretty good, but it seems like those candy-asses are afraid to finish up Motown itself.

Anyone else noticed this?

On the other hand, my latest family discovery was that a distant cousin founded the Immanuel Lutheran Church at at 17th and Pine back around 1890. A quick look at an ordinary map shows that location smack dab in the middle of the I-75 and I-96 freeway interchange.

Damn.

[wolverine]

Not sure if its up to google or the business/individuals they hire to actually photograph the streets.

[Johnnny5]

Many addresses from that far back simply no longer exist, street numbers and names have changed and roads have been eliminated. I've had reasonable luck using Microsoft Live maps when searching for addresses in Detroit.

[Stosh]

I have to echo Johnny5's comments. Lots of street address changes. The Sanborn maps from a certain point on have both old and new addresses listed. I find the coverage acceptable for a free service.

[LeannaM]

Google Maps is pretty good, considering you pay nothing for it. Of course, there is Live Maps also.

As far as census records, there are quite a few here:
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

There are some other street-view-type sites, but I have little to no experience with them.
I don't think many have Detroit views, either.

[spiritofdetroit]

I saw the Google Maps car with camera driving through downtown earlier this week

[iheartthed]

I thought Google Maps did a pretty good job of covering Detroit. I haven't personally compared it to how well they covered other cities, but I remember some asshole complaining that Detroit's Google Maps presence was more detailed than DC's.

[Detroit Stylin]

Have you tried Google earth? It tends to generally pick up addresses of buildings and pin point their locations even if they are no longer there....

[Bearinabox]

I thought Google Maps did a pretty good job of covering Detroit. I haven't personally compared it to how well they covered other cities, but I remember some asshole complaining that Detroit's Google Maps presence was more detailed than DC's.

Draw a line through the city that follows [[northwest to southeast) the Lodge, the Davison, and Conner. South and west of that line has decent coverage, north and east has virtually none. Looks like whoever they hired to do the mapping is a die-hard westsider.

[Andrew in Windsor]

The Google Car was spotted in Windsor last week too.

http://www.windsorvisuals.com/?p=554

[Ray1936]

Neat! Thanks for sharing that, AW. I kind of surmised what it would look like from shadows I've noted, but it's nice to finally see the "real thing".

[bigtreble]

I saw the Google Maps car with camera driving through downtown earlier this week

I saw the Google Chevy Cobalt drive past Cheli's/Comerica at 1pm Thursday, right before the tigs game.

[hudkina]

Detroit was actually one of the earliest cities to get the "Streetview" function. It wasn't in the first wave [[which is good, because the first images didn't show a complete 360 degree view.), but I believe it was in the second wave.

Detroit is a pretty big metro with TONS of roads, so I can see why they weren't able to do the whole thing. Also, the weather wasn't that great on many of the days they did it earlier, so it was almost pointless to have them. It will be nice when they finally come back and finish the rest of the city!

It's kind of sad that I can see EVERY damn road in the Toledo area [[including dusty country roads in the middle of cornfields) but I can't see neighborhoods on Detroit's East Side...