Google Street View was launched on May 25, 2007 in several cities around the United States and continued to expand into areas all over the world. By 2012, Google Street View had covered 39 countries and travelled along 5 million miles of roads.
The cameras used to take Google Street View photos are near HD quality. They are mounted to vehicles, typically a car although cameras have been mounted to tri-wheel pedaled vehicles in order to access areas where a normal car could not reach. Vehicles in 2012 had 15 cameras, an onboard computer and hard drive, and laser systems to measure distances between objects that were being photographed.
Once the cameras have taken the photographs, the pictures are stitched together to form a 360 degree view. Then face and license blurring technology is used to ensure passers-by in the photos cannot be identified.
The resulting images are featured in Google Maps and Google Earth.
Of course, when a vehicle is driving down millions of miles of random streets taking billions of pictures, you’re bound to end up capturing some unexpected (and entertaining) results. Here are some odd and funny Google Street View pictures.
