Google Grants Wishes of Blog "NOLA Street View"

Perhaps Google heard the noise from New Orleans, or perhaps they didn't. Either way, Google Street View was updated today with photos from 2011, providing all who search with a less flood-torn view of the town. The revamp is exactly what Hunter King and Annalisa Kelly were pushing for when they created a blog called NOLA Street View http://nolastreetview.blogspot.com and took to the streets to document how the city has changed since the last time the search engine's popular maps function was updated.

Before today, many of the pictures on Google Street View were taken about 2007. Now, photos are featured from 2011, and there are off-road tours through Louis Armstrong Park, Audubon Park, Lafayette Square and others. A posting from Mayor Mitch introduces the changes:

“Nearly 7 years after Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures in 2005, the resilient people of New Orleans are making remarkable progress. The Street View imagery in Google Maps, which has just been updated today, more accurately reflects the major construction and renewal that’s underway. It’s everywhere you look, from the nearly 2-mile long, 26-foot-high Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC) Hurricane Protection Barrier to the major construction near downtown that will be the future site of two hospitals and a biomedical research corridor.

As their frustration with the outdated feature boiled over, King and Kelly started taking to the streets by bike to document changes to the c

ity's landscape. Where Google Street View showed FEMA trailers and empty houses, King and Kelly often found a renovated home. Now, the Street View shows what the duo was finding more accurately, they said Tuesday. A photo they took of a house at the corner of Marais and St. Ferdinand St. in the St. Roch neighborhood is virtually identical to what now appears on Google.

"We're thrilled to see Google respond with an update, and in such a thoughtful way," Kelly said. "Overall it's been a very rewarding experience to explore the city, share how much it has changed, and receive such wonderful responses from folks from around the world."

A Google spokeswoman said the new images were taken from March-August, 2011. She did not comment on whether the blog motivated the changes. King said he isn't concerned about getting the credit, anyway.

"We don't have reason to believe we were responsible for the update,

but we had a lot of fun with it,” King said. "Props to Google for

fixing an oversight; the new imagery looks great."

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Google Grants Wishes of Blog "NOLA Street View"

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