Development of Google Street View

Early on, most locations had a more limited number of views, usually contained to the city limits, and only including major streets, and they only showed the buildings up to a certain height. But most of the initial views have been greatly expanded, and have been updated to show scenery all the way to the sky. Collections of photos taken of cities added later are generally more extensive from the beginning, and often include a more detailed area with every side street within the main city, more suburbs, and often more cities that within a close drive of the main city. These areas continue to be expanded with each set of introductions.

United States
New York
Originally, while views could be seen in parts of all five of New York City's boroughs, there were minimal views provided of any New York suburbs. But on June 10, 2008, service was expanded in this area. Now, almost all streets in all five boroughs are included, as well many cities and suburbs in Long Island, Westchester County and North Jersey (such as Newark and Edison). While some of these extended locations include every street, others still feature just the main roads (see complete map).

Much of eastern Upstate New York is featured near the Albany icon (see complete map).

The only other icon identifying a city in New York is Buffalo. But there are three separate cities with isolated sections of coverage in this western section of New York: Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. Of all these three cities, Rochester has the most area covered (see complete map of all three cities).

New England
The first two cities in New England to be introduced were Boston and Providence on December 10, 2007, and many other cities in Massachusetts were also included (such as Worcester, Quincy, Brookfield, and Lowell). On February 12, 2008, Manchester was added, resulting in much of the area between Boston and Manchester being filled in. On June 10, no new icons were added to the New England area, but the coverage was expanded to include the Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut areas (see complete map).

Pennsylvania
The Philadelphia area includes other parts of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a large area around Philadelphia International Airport, the Wilmington, Delaware area and other parts of New Castle County, and a little bit of Elkton, Maryland. In many of the suburban areas in Pennsylvania, complete communities with every cul-de-sac are included. On June 10, parts of I-95 in Cecil County, Maryland and the New Jersey Turnpike were also added. (see complete map).

The Pittsburgh area also includes towns as far as 60 miles North, East, and South of the city, such as New Castle and Uniontown (see complete map)

Virginia
Originally, when Richmond was introduced on March 27, it included only the city and a few areas just outside. It did not even feature Petersburg. When Virginia Beach was added on June 10, coverage was extended to much of the entire region of southeastern Virginia, including Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Chesapeake, and Williamsburg (see complete map).

North and South Carolina
The Raleigh icon initially featured just the cities of Durham and Chapel Hill, but on June 10, was expanded west to include the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point metro areas. (see complete map).

Greenville, South Carolina lacks an icon of its own, but has coverage. It is within close proximity of Charlotte and Columbia, both of which were introduced on June 10 (see complete map of all three cities).

Kentucky
Both the cities of Louisville and Lexington in Kentucky were introduced on June 10 in separate, isolated collections. Louisville has an icon; Lexington does not (see complete map).

Tennessee
In Tennessee, Nashville was introduced on March 27, and was expanded on June 10 (see complete map). Knoxville was added on June 10, but without an icon (see complete map). It is also close to the icons for Atlanta, Columbia, and Charlotte.

Georgia/Alabama/Mississippi
The Atlanta icon, introduced on June 10, became Google's first coverage anywhere in the state of Georgia, and on day one, started to cover quite a lot of area in Atlanta's suburbs. Coverage extends quite some distance beyond , especially to the northwest (see complete map).

Additionally, Huntsville, Alabama has coverage, though there is no icon in this area. Huntsville is also close to Nashville (see Huntsville area coverage).

Jackson, Mississippi was also introduced on June 10, with an icon of its own, and coverage in the immediate vicinity of the city (see complete map).

Florida
In the Miami view, originally one of the places with fewer details, small part of the cities of Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale were the only areas beyond the immediate Miami area that were included. But on June 10, the Miami icon was extended to included a much larger area, including the urban parts of Palm Beach and Broward Counties, the Florida Keys (all the way to Key West), part of the area around Lake Okeechobee, and part Everglades National Park.

The Tampa icon originally included just the immediate Tampa Bay Area with just St. Petersburg and some nearby suburbs. On June 10, it was expanded to the south to cover much of the urban parts of the west coast of Florida.

Along with the Orlando icon, which also includes Melbourne and Daytona Beach, and the Jacksonville icon that was added on June 10, most urban areas of Florida other than the western panhandle are now included (see complete map).

Arkansas
Little Rock was part on the March 27 introductions. Coverage extends quite far to the north and south of the city, including Pine Bluff (see complete map).

Missouri/Kansas/Nebraska
The Kansas City at first just featured Kansas City, its immediate suburbs, and the cities of Lawrence and Baldwin City in Kansas, both to the west of Kansas City. On June 10, 2008, the area was expanded to include other parts of Kansas, including Topeka, plus quite a large area around Topeka. In all, the amount of coverage in the Topeka area is now more than twice as large as that of Kansas City (see complete map).

Additionally, the nearby Omaha and Lincoln were added on June 10 without an icon. The closest icon is that of Kansas City. Though the overall coverage area for these two cities is quite large, not every street in either city has full coverage on every street at the present time (see complete map).

St. Louis was introduced on June 10. Though suburban coverage is quite high, this icon does not include many areas far beyond the immediate vicinity of the city (see complete map).

Ohio
The Columbus icon, introduced on June 10 also includes the nearby areas of Dayton and Cincinnati (see complete map). The nearby Cleveland icon, introduced on March 27, first only featured the immediate Cleveland area. It is yet to be extended much, but the main roads leading to Akron and Canton have been added (see complete map). Toledo was also added on June 10 without an icon, but with isolated coverage of its own (see complete map). Toledo is located closest to the Detroit icon.

Michigan
The Detroit area began with views covering very few streets inside the Detroit city limits, detailed views in the suburbs in much of Wayne County and southern Oakland County, and very few freeways. On February 12, 2008, it expanded to include more Detroit streets, more streets in Macomb County and more freeways. On June 10, Ann Arbor was added (see complete map).

Indiana
Indianapolis's Street View map extends to other cities in Indiana, including Terre Haute, Anderson, Bloomington, Muncie, Marion, Lafayette, Columbus and Greensburg, as well as to Danville, Illinois (see complete map).

Illinois/Wisconsin
When the Chicago area views were first released, very few suburban areas were included. But on February 12, 2008, when Milwaukee was added, all areas between these two cities were included, greatly increasing the number of Chicago suburbs that could be found, as well as the number of streets in the Chicago area. On March 27, 2008, when Madison and Rockford were added, this brought four areas together, extending all the way out to Dubuque, Iowa. Though Chicago, Rockford, Milwaukee, and Madison each have a separate icon, all included areas are continually connected ([http://maps.google.com/maps?fq&hlen&geocode&qusa&ieUTF8&ll42.455888,-88.588257&spn1.864294,5.07019&z8&layer=c see complete map of all 4 areas]).

California
The Los Angeles area started with views covering very few streets and very few areas from nearby cities. But currently, many other large cities near Los Angeles are covered in detail, including Ontario, San Bernardino, Riverside, much of Orange County and San Fernando (see complete map).

Colorado
The Denver area has also been improved since its day of inception. Originally including only Denver and its immediate suburbs, the areas covered now include all points as far north as Fort Collins and Wellington, and points as far south as Castle Rock (see complete map).

Texas
In Dallas-Ft. Worth, almost every street was visible in the Street View mode from the beginning (see complete map of Dallas-Ft. Worth area).

The Houston area also includes Galveston (see complete map).

Oregon
The Portland, Oregon views includes Vancouver, Washington and the south end of Willapa Bay (see complete map).

Utah
The Salt Lake City icon includes most of Utah's largest cities, including Provo, Ogden, Sandy, etc. (see complete map).

New Mexico
The Albuquerque icon also features Santa Fe, New Mexico. Though no icon exists for Santa Fe itself, this adds to the growing list of state capitals included. As of June 10, 2008, 27 state capitals can be seen in Street View mode (see complete map).

Alaska
Introductions in 2007 included only major American cities. Many of the 2008 releases include smaller cities and rural areas. The February 12 release included places like Juneau, Alaska, the first place outside the contiguous United States to be included (see complete map). On March 27, the cities of Anchorage (see complete map) and Fairbanks (see complete map) in Alaska were also added, bringing the total number of cities on Alaska to three.

Idaho
Boise, Idaho was a part of the February 2008 introductions (see complete map).

Washington
Spokane, Washington was introduced on March 27, 2008; it also included much of Spokane Valley, Washington and portions of Airway Heights, Washington, as well as portions Post Falls, Idaho and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The Google car has been seen in Seattle. (see complete map).

France
French Street View was added July 2, 2008, in 19 locations.

Italy
Italian Street View was added along with the July 2, 2008, French Street View. The only area in Italy added on this date was the city of Cuneo.

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