Canada gets Google StreetView

Google launched their StreetView program in major Canadian cities today. Of course I don't live there right now, but I did check out my old stomping grounds in Vancouver, BC.


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Also, they happened to do Chester, NS which is where I usually spend most of my summer vacations.



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Google Calendar Available Offline

I am just starting to peek my head out of the thesis hole and noticed that Google Calendar is now available offline using Google Gears. By default it only syncs your personal calendar, but shared calendars can also be synced under the offline options.

I'm not offline that often, but it is nice to know that my calendar is always available now.

Considering Gears has been around for quite awhile now, I am surprised that it took Google this long to add the offline mode for their calendar.

Google Street View

Every once in awhile I see a new computer application that makes me sit back and think "Wow!" (and no this isn't an advertisement for Vista). Google added a new feature to their Google Maps project called Street View. Basically, this lets you view panorama pictures at street level of any place in certain cities; currently restricted to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and New York.

The cool thing is that you can actually "walk" along the street, look around 360 degrees, and zoom in/out. I'm not sure how the privacy issues will work out for Google since you can clearly view people and license plates, but I can't wait until they expand to other cities (and countries).

Also, Google put out a nice (but kind of quirky) tutorial on YouTube.