May 29, 2007

Howto: Google Maps Street View outside US

Google is making excessive use of their GeoIP database these days to test new features in a limited area of their choice. Now they decided to only let users from the US use the street view option in Google Maps. If you live in another country, you'd actually have to wait until Google releases the feature worldwide or use a proxy from inside the states.
There's another way to avoid Google's IP filter though:

Add &gl=us at the end of the URL !

Example link: http://maps.google.com/maps?[...]&gl=us

And for all you non-believers, here's a screenshot of me walking around in New York City while I am actually sitting in Germany writing this post:



Have fun!
 



23 comments:

Mads Færch said...

You sneaky bastard :D

Anonymous said...

Nice one :)

michael said...

Yep, totally worked for me too here in Canada.

Anonymous said...

it works fine from the UK.
but no London views yet.
Grüssen
m

Silentbob said...

HAHA cool im from flushing

ben said...

I'm giving this 12 hours before it stops working. :(

Anonymous said...

just goto
www.google.com/ncr
then go to maps section

it should work

Anonymous said...

I'm in Hong Kong and can use the street views without any problems. I was just checking out Palo Alto and part of the stanford campus, as well as New York.

Nuno Martins said...

I'm from portugal and I didn't need such thing.. the ip firter is not working here I say..

greetings

Forgotten said...

Any clue that this will make its way into Canada or the UK?

video game wallpapers said...

wow nice ! :-D

Lionfire said...

For what it's worth, it seems to be accessible from Australia without the hack.

BenN said...

I'm having no problem accessing street view from Greece or the UK. Where are they actually blocking?

BTW: Liking the Zune theme in the screenshot.

Anonymous said...

I live in Portugal and I have no problem to access street view using Google Maps. Or they are blocking germany or there's some kind of problem on your ISP.

I see it normally without using your tip.

tedmasterweb said...

I'm in the Canary Islands and it works fine for me without the additional parameter...

Mousky said...

I'm located in Canada and had no problem accessing Google Maps Street View - I did not have to alter the url to access Street View. Could it be that Google has not rolling out this feature in phases?

zbikos said...

In Poland I don't have any problems. Just go to the right location:...Google has rolled out Street View in Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and San Francisco.

Mikhail said...

Moscow, Russia is blocked. Thank you for your tip! Now I can use Street View.

tom said...

Here in Switzerland? It always just worked - no tweaks or tricks necessary.

Dazman said...

This site has loads of link to good Street Views

http://topstreetviews.com/

noisycity said...

I added here the most amazing Street View.

Habitaquo said...

it works in paraguay [south america]

Arun said...

I was in US during the summer 2007. The street view worked there (along with other options like Map, Satellite, Hybrid).

I am in India right now. When I try google maps there is no option of Map, Satellite .. ., Street view anymore. Also when I try to get directions, I get only the verbal directions. Earlier the route was shown in the map. Was there some change in google maps website? or is it that some law in India prevents it? The URL trick you gave didn't work. get the same content

Thanks in advance