People were pretty thoroughly blown away when Microsoft introduced the TerraServer back in the mid 90′s. There, on the web, were millions of acres of scenary from declassified satellite imagery. You could see your house. Heck, sometimes you could see your car. Various services have offered various modifications to the basic idea since then, but today Microsoft did it again with Widows Live Local, which is basically the new version of TerraServer.
People who were spooked by the old imagery will fall over when they see the new “Bird’s Eye” view mode. Don’t believe me? Take a look at a small “collection” that I put together really quickly to give a few examples. Sadly Minneapolis and, to a lesser extent, St Paul have fairly spotty coverage, but there’s a few gems.
