IssueTracker

Thank you for the post and apologies for the delay.

For further checking, kindly provide the coordinates/latlng and the map link for the reported concern.

That's what I did in that issue, but not links. I'll do this once again, this time with links to the locations of concern:

• Los Angeles: 34.4277232,-118.5857775 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/ffYtFgm93XHFCKwr7
• Dallas-Fort Worth: 32.7491504,-97.29456 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q6LdyKDKxPfNwGUT7
• Houston: 29.7105342,-95.3082092 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ybrdcwRfxvgu3GSA
• Orlando: 28.4997113,-81.4280755 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/H94wP9rL1q4DDzrK9
• Bay Area: 37.4173519,-122.0876903 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/epqGxSLSUC6jdjcz6
• Miami: 25.8356795,-80.2061919 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/qwtiifHHhjPD3vve9

Screenshots of the locations associated with the imagery are also provided.

If you go to those coordinates, enter Street View and click on the 'See more dates' link on the top-right corner, in some instances there is in fact imagery from 2017, except it's entirely in Gen 3 quality and no Gen 4-equivelant versions currently exist. Even past the removal, I was able to retrieve the imagery through API functionality, but overtime it was also removed there. Note, however, that these are just examples and many other US locations also had Gen 4 imagery captured within the date range.

(Replying to comment #4) Cool! Hopefully the imagery gets restored soon. Thanks for the update.

I have this thought, too. For me, curiosity over this came along several moments after one Street View update from earlier this year, where we did find some early examples of Gen 4 imagery in the US that had been captured between March and September 2017 (e.g., https://goo.gl/maps/JSPg2nm4C76MAVqv7, https://goo.gl/maps/3FojuB2m3pt6Qf768, https://goo.gl/maps/3PPasyHL8FBvTNT69, https://goo.gl/maps/3rJYZGw52YSUsLRv8, https://goo.gl/maps/rTTLhR9VL37hGjxe6, https://goo.gl/maps/ZW6imaxm7ZkkBnhH9 and https://goo.gl/maps/cTmaoVP7i3vrHVZx5). Those images were detected in the desktop Maps 'Time Machine' and a few roads where they have not received any quality updates for quite a while, as indicated by 2021 copyright. (UPDATE: Although their pano IDs remain valid, the imagery themselves is no longer publicly accessible as of March 1, 2022.)

If that were to be an extreme case, I wonder if pre-May 2007 imagery were to also be available through the 'Time Machine' and Street View APIs, because I learned much about Street View's origins and history. From one of the "Keyword" posts from 2017, Street View had its early roots in 2000s development and official capturing didn't begin until mid-2006, when camera-equipped cars started rolling out to gather imagery in preparation for the launch the following year.

The service has its 15th anniversary in 2022 by the way, and to coincide with that I believe it should happen--at least with a minimum capture date of 2005. However Google would probably need some time to recover the missing panos and put them into the 'Time Machine' and the rest of the API.

FYI it is possible to retrieve all available imagery from coordinates using the API. It returns a list of all available pictures per date (data.time[]) and also provides the pano ID for each. The problem is that it only works using the SV.getPanoramaByLocation method which costs money. If this can be implemented into the metadata API which is free then it would be perfect.

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AFAIK when Street View launched in 2007 it was in May, before almost all gen 1 imagery was done. I remember the available imagery back in time in SF and LA had a good quality and stuff indicating it was taken in 2005 (like movie posters showing the King Kong movie from 2005). This data, which I usually refer as "Gen 0", was not a spherical 360° image but a 360° panorama with black holes at the top and the bottom. If this would be published then Google will need to fill those holes. Not really an issue since it is already done to hide the car with a special mask.

Also Gen 4 camera was seen in San Francisco in late 2016. It was probably under testing as sometimes it didn't have the blue shell yet. Possible that pictures were not fully functional to be published. You can see it on Street View, as a Gen 3 car was following it: https://goo.gl/maps/nGVVxEQ91kWxbqzNA (and in December 2015 the LIDAR sensors used by gen 4 seemed to be tested too: https://goo.gl/maps/TVJcGuBt9PxQ7m7x8).

What do you not understand in "This is not the subject of this suggestion"? This is not about publishing old data or whatever, it is about getting the ability to retrieve all the different data available on a specific point (where Google drove its cars multiple times over the years). You're just being annoying by spamming unrelated messages that are notified to everyone subscribing to this suggestion. So please stop and stay on topic.

Quoting from comment #63: "This is not about publishing old data or whatever, it is about getting the ability to retrieve all the different data available on a specific point (where Google drove its cars multiple times over the years)."

Do you not realize anything about 'pano IDs'? At times we've discussed the possibility of retrieving such panos that have been removed (down to the point when the service first launched), or otherwise not released (especially when they have been processed but are currently unavailable to the public), over the years. However when we speak about removed data, the big G would first need to work hard to find, recover and process the missing data, which would affect the publicized Street View 'Time Machine' feature on desktop Maps. Does that make clear sense to you?

UPDATE: Alright... will be creating a separate issue.

Anything yet?

Shall we keep waiting?

Hmm… maybe even longer? :\

And now Google just removed the 9/10/2021 Street View update data, and that's heartbreaking. This should have not happened. When will they come back? :'(

To be honest the removal of these Gen 4 images, dated March to September 2017, destroys the quality for roads needing higher-resolution imagery. If the data is not restored by late May, they'll become a curse.

I'm seeing that although the Street View API still returns these early Gen 4 images as 'OK' (example: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview/metadata?key=[BLANK]&pano=leQOHWIvP2XVTs9JmC3b1A - https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?key=[BLANK]&pano=leQOHWIvP2XVTs9JmC3b1A&size=1920x1080, image is dated Apr 2017), they are NOT publicly visible on Google Maps through the 'Time Machine', which in turn makes this some sort of a semi-removal. But again, they shouldn't be taken off the database as the removal messes up the quality for roads needing hi-res imagery.

See related issue 228201902. A user is reporting that some images have either disappeared or removed, and this behavior is not normal.

Without the early Gen 4 data, because it is gone, I honestly feel very uncomfortable looking at Street View. Until the data is readded, I'll be going into a pause.

(Replying to comment #74) That would be an issue 232516758 thing. I'd probably request you to refer to that case instead.

It's been realized that the 9/10/2021 update was not done very well. In my opinion, however, I don't think that update is responsible for the broken coverage, but it rather has to do with the Street View API itself because the cars rely on it to process and upload imagery to Google Maps, and it could have contained errors in the code when the new continuous updates system was ready to take effect the same time. So, it should be obvious to redo the update, but due to hearings that most of the imagery from it would have likely caused a lot of legal trouble for Google, and that it could cause Map problems, it'd probably be best to restore only small parts of the update (at least the extra Gen 4 data in North America would be good enough).

It’s been a year since the 9/10/2021 data was removed, and I’m still not able to view it. It would be nice if Google only restored the March-September 2017 Gen 4 data, since it provided some quality updates to outdated coverage in North America.

Is this ever going to be implemented? It should include access to the 9/10/2021 imagery.

I still wish that the Gen 4 data from March-September 2017 was readded. Not all US states have a lot of 2017 imagery, and most of it is currently in Gen 3 quality which is not very perfect due to stitching errors and inconsistent picture quality on higher-resolution displays.