If you like checking old haunts in Google Earth Streetview.....

[EMG]

...check out this site I just found out about:

www.vpike.com

You can type addresses in just like in Google Earth - and bring up actual Google Earth streetview Of course, it only works for locations for which Google has already taken Streetview images.

Vpike provides a couple of substantial advantages over Google Earth:

1) It's available even if you don't have or want to download and install Google Earthy and

2) Even more importantly, once you're "at" that location [[maybe looking at your childhood home on the block on which you grew up - or the block you live on today) you can easily click and drag a "little man figure" up and down the street or anywhere else on the map that you like...and go immediately to the Streetview for that area. If you want to take a virtual stroll up and down your old neighborhood, you can move around much more easily and quickly than by clicking on rows of camera icons the way you have to in Google Earth.

[Bigb23]

Great site EMG. Just puttered around on it for a few minutes, and was impressed with how easy it is to manuver, as compared to the Google Earth site.
Thanks !

[EMG]

Since making my first post I've spent more time on the site myself and found that it's even better than I originally made it out to be.

I found out that within the picture, you can click on the little white arrows that sometimes are superimposed in the street right within the streetview image. Or you can click anywhere in the picture and it will immediately go just about to that area [[which is much better than Google Earth which only moves you forward a "camera" or two at a time).

Another nice feature is that you can easily navigate "sideways" along a streetview block that you're looking at. Put in your childhood address, then click and drag so you're looking right at the front of your own house from the street. Now the white arrows on the street will be pointing to your right and your left, and you can click either one to move "to your right or left" on the street. A quick and easy way to move on down the block to look at your former neighbors' houses. Now there's something I don't think can be as easily done on Google Earth!

[Maof]

how often do they take these pictures? now i found my childhood home in detroit but i thought for sure is was gone when we went down there a few years ago. of course, which was once a street full of homes, it's now full of empty lots.

[Trumpeteer]

This is EXACTLY the same as Google Earth as I've used it countless times. YEs you can drag the little man up and down your street too.

[charlottepaul]

Not to be too much of a Debbie Downer, but Google Street View has had this for years now. Sorry old folks...