Yesterday was an exciting day for map enthusiasts around the country, as Google rolled out the biggest expansion to Street View imagry yet. Included in the update was the first street level imagry for Harrisburg, but don’t get your hopes up. The included area is pathetic.
Yeah, that’s right. The Googlemobile took a 15 minute detour off of Interstate 81 to give us some token coverage. Whatever, something isbetter than nothing.
Diving into the details of their coverage reveals something interesting… Check out this scene at 3rd and Reily.
Huh? Hey!
Wait a second…
That building was torn down on September 19, 2007! That was almost a year and a half ago! So what gives Google? What took you so long to post your data? According to Wikipedia, Street View only debuted on May 25, 2007.
So when did the Googlemobile make its quiet pass through Harrisburg? There must be other clues out there. But where??
Eureka! That’s it! The Farm Show Complex!
The top two lines of the sign in front of the building read “PA National Quilt Extravaganza 6-9.” A quick Google search tells me that the event was held September 6-9, 2007. Street View for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was launched on October 9, 2007. Perhaps they did their little Harrisburg drive-by while working on those two cities…
But the question remains: Google, what took you so long to publish your data?
Has anyone else out there determined when the newly released imagry was actually shot.
In the meantime, you can marvel at the endless miles of empty desert that Google decided were more important to photograph that 2nd Street and virtually the rest of central PA!
