Alert — and confused — “06880” reader Jaime Bairaktaris was looking up an address on Google.
The world’s largest search engine — which supposedly knows everything — took Jaime’s “Post Road East,” and turned it into “State Street East.”
It’s right there on Google Street View too:
That’s the internet search equivalent of your grandmother telling you to close “the icebox.”
Jamie wonders: “Is State Street still the legal name of Post Road East?”
I’m guessing no. That would be “US 1.”
Posted in Downtown, technology, Totally random
Tagged Google Street View, Post Road East, US1
If you’re like most “06880” readers, you enjoyed this morning’s photographic trip down memory lane.
You admired the photos. They jogged memories — or, if you’re a newcomer (or just young), you tried to imagine the Westport of yore.
If you were Mark Potts though, you headed straight to Google Street View.
Mark — a 1974 Staples grad who co-founded WashingtonPost.com, served as editor of Philly.com, and is a consultant with clients like the Los Angeles Times, Variety and Silicon Valley startups — now lives in Lawrence, Kansas.
But his heart is still here. And one of his many hobbies is taking creating “then and now” images with “06880” photos. (Click here for last October’s shots.)
Today’s batch was tough, he says. A few unusual photo angles could not be duplicated (the Merritt Parkway shot, for example, was taken from the side of the road). And Mark couldn’t figure out where the Post Road import car shop was.
But the rest worked out fairly well. Enjoy his trip back in time — and back to the present.
Posted in Downtown, Looking back, Saugatuck, Transportation
Tagged Google Street View, Mark Potts
Last week, Google pulled out of China. Human rights activists around the globe applauded the news.
But one former Westporter found another of the search giant’s actions a little creepy. Rather than affecting 1.3 billion Chinese, this impacted only 1 family. Still…
The other day Charles Gallant — now a self-described New York-based “web nerd, musician, artist and thinker” — was doing what such people (and the rest of us) often do: fooling around on Google Maps. He clicked on his home town, zoomed in on his Crooked Mile Road neighborhood, then chose Street View.
He navigated to his house — and found a shot of his father, mowing the lawn.
To me, that’s a lot scarier than Chinese agents hacking into the computers of over 30 Silicon Valley companies.
Click here to help support “06880” via credit card or PayPal. Any amount is welcome — and appreciated! Reader contributions keep this blog going. (Alternate methods: Please send a check to: Dan Woog, 301 Post Road East, Westport, CT 06880. Or use Venmo: @DanWoog06880. Thanks!)
