Bringing the 'Ghosts' of Google Street View To Life

Google’s Street View cars have documented all over the world city storefronts, bus stops, apartment stoops and sidewalks. If you’ve ever spent any time trolling through these digital streetscapes, you know that Google also – perhaps accidentally – captured one other essential element of life in the city: These places are inhabited by people.

Depending on your point of view, this may be a charming element of Google Street View. Otherwise static scenes of buildings and infrastructure are peppered with intimate glimpses of people who just happened to be out cooling in a fire hydrant or pushing a baby stroller as the Google car drove by. There’s a whole cottage industry online devoted to mining for these oddities (see here, here, here, and here, a blog devoted entirely to people caught walking their dogs on Google Street View).