Do you ever use Google Streetview to go wander around the old neighborhood?

Re: your last tag, don’t you know You Can’t Go Home Again!

And to answer the question, the farm that I grew up on is underwater now but only 12 miles away from where I live now.

I have done that.

I lived in Harrison NY for two years when I was a kid. Twice in the last ten years I have met people that I’ve there now. It got me curious to see how the town has changed and what parts are the same.

I have also looked at places I lived when I was in college.

Yes, most recently about 4 weeks ago for a house I owned in 1978.

Some time in the last 40 years, the owners cut down several nice trees in the back yard, and didn’t take good care of place. The front yard looked good, however, with some trees that I planted way back then.

I paid $46000 for that house in 1978 – now it is selling for almost 10 times that amount. And it was a crappy starter home back then.

Oh, yeah, and they put in a nice pool at the house I grew up in. Which put a bit of a lie to what my Dad said about why we couldn’t when I was growing up…zoning laws.
It would have been silly for various reasons, but as kids we thought it would be a grand idea!

Well, the old neighborhood is down the street from me, so… :P

But I certainly do use StreetView to look at places I haven’t been to in a long time (and am maybe unlikely to return to) to see how they have changed. It was fascinating to use satellite imagery to see what was done to my grandmother’s house after it sold: the backyard, formerly an acre of untamed wild land, has been turned into a beautiful fully-landscaped garden. It deserved that after years of neglect.

Absolutely! It is fun to see how things have changed – and what is still there!

Yes. The location of one place we lived, my favorite 100 year old house, is now a huge condo complex.
The first house I bought still looks the same, except with a pool added. It was brand new when we bought, on the curve of a cul-de-sac with an extra large yard.

@canidmajor My dad said the same thing when I wanted a horse. He said the laws wouldn’t allow us to keep a horse in the garage.
I have looked at places I used to live on street view. The first house I ever bought was a tiny 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house. They paved the entire yard. Apparently they don’t like grass.

I don’t, very often, because my father still lives in the same house so I can see the neighbourhood for real whenever I visit him. It hasn’t changed much, except he’s got rid of the two overgrown trees that were in front of the house, blocking out most of the light. It does sometimes look strange, to look out the window and they’re not there.

What I’ve been using Streetview for much more often, especially in lockdown, is “visiting” places I’ve never been before. I’ve “been” to New Orleans, Yellowstone Park, the far north of Canada, some Pacific islands, and the Pyramids in Egypt, among others.

Yes just yesterday looked up a residence of the place where the persons relative lived ( passed away and sold that home) to add to his Family History book.
( except I later turned it into a sketch for the background of the pedigree Family Chart, since Iam going with black and white sketches ( variety) of the History.

I am in the house I grew up in every night when I dream.
I have no interest in seeing how it has changed.

Yes. It’s how I firs saw the changes to the house where I grew up. The current owners did a beautiful job renovating in. (I got to see the inside a couple of years ago, and it looks so much better!)

Yup, two weeks ago. I looked at my grandparent’s house too (they lived a half mile away) the bus stop is still in front of their house. I use to walk over to their house and go shopping with my grandmother using the bus.

Yes, it’s kinda fun to look around new and old places you have and haven’t seen on there.

Yes! And sometimes I go on street view to see our current house too. It’s funny to see what moment was captured. I wish I had saved them all.

Our House Through The Years:
As Seen By Google Streetview

@raum

I saved a screenshot of a Google street view from 10 years ago, but it was mostly of my car, which was parked in front.

The latest view of my house is Jan, 2021. What’s the time stamp of your house’s street view?

I think it’s from 2018?
How do you find the time stamp?

On the bottom border of the image, there should be a thin black strip on the right side.
On the left end of the strip, you should see “Image capture: Mmm YYYY”, written with white text.

The display for my house shows “Image capture: Jan 2021”.

My present house is completely blurred out in Streetview. This is a deliberate blurring, like they do to faces and moving cars and license plates. The other houses around it are not. Why would that be? Older images were clear enough that you could read the house number and even see a little bit inside the front window.

Image capture date is May 2019.

Since 2009, there’s been an option to blur out your address for privacy.

Do you rent? Perhaps the landlord requested it?

@kneesox

Blurred out buildings in Street View.

Wow, I didn’t know about that option. Thanks.

No, I don’t rent, and we never requested the blur. I wonder if there’s a way to get rid of it. What if you move into a house that the past owner blurred, and you don’t want the blur? How frustrating.

@Tropical_Willie My friend had this done to his house, because his elderly mother and grandchild were outside the house.

@kneesox To request that your address be blurred, you select “report a problem”. I wonder if you could use that same way to request it be un-blurred?

@filmfann At our address, only faces are blurred out. You can see everything else clearly.

According to the ^^^^^SF Gate^^^^ it is forever . . . . !

Well, I hope it isn’t. I positively don’t believe Google doesn’t have the power or the means. And being stuck with a previous owner’s choice would really be annoying. That’s not the case with me, but it would be if I sold my house.

I’ve noticed a possible fault in Google’s identification processing:

I entered my correct address; the left panel header confirms it; and the photo shows my house.
However, the black box with the dots shows the address of the house across the street from me.

So it could be that your neighbor across the street requested blurring for their house, but then yours was blurred instead.

If you go to “Report a problem”, there’s an option to Report image quality.
If you select “Misplaced image or misaligned navigation arrows” or “Overall poor image quality”, you get a message box where you can request that they remove the blurring, or something like that, in your own words.

@Brian1946, thanks, I did that and got a bot acknowledgement, so we’ll see. Good point that it might have been meant for somebody else’s house.

@kneesox

Does the address in the black box match yours?

We had a Zoom meeting where we were asked to show your previous home. I was amazed that my previous home was still there, and that the subsequent owners do not seem to have maintained it over all these years.

Nope. I’ve got better real things to do.