Fun with Google Maps—Where’s My House?
The Internet can be a fun way to reminisce with family.
While my parents are in town this week we were reminiscing about old places we’ve lived. I’d been trying to remember where we used to live in Oslo, Norway. I remembered the street name, but my attempts in the past to find it didn’t find the street. I was pretty sure I just didn’t know how to spell it. I thought my luck had ran out.
So, while my parents were here, I dragged them to a computer and we used Google Maps to try to find it. It was a good thing, as they remembered some of the land marks and could gauge how far from them we lived. Bingo! We found it!
The house was supposedly designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but I couldn’t find a reference to it. We are pretty sure which house it is now. I wish Google had the street view in Norway, but it wasn’t available yet in Norway. Street view is pretty cool, but they really need to get it in Europe!
Oddly enough, Yahoo! Maps didn’t have the correct street names in Oslo. I thought Yahoo!’s satellite looked better though. Unfortunately, I couldn’t link to Yahoo!’s map since Yahoo! Couldn’t find the street address.
We did go on to find many of our old homes, most with nice pictures. Although, some houses aren’t the same — the one in Florida had been destroyed by a hurricane. Street view is pretty fun and I was surprised that almost all the places I’ve lived have it now. At the same time, though, it does seem a bit like Big Brother.