Google have gone to some extreme lengths to document each and every part of our planet - 89-93% of which is unihabited by humans. There are even places that used to be inhabited by us hairless apes that have since been abandoned, ghost towns that nobody has been to in yonks that nonetheless live on their spectral existence through Google Maps. The Street View team even got a chance to document Hashima Island, Japan (32.6278, 129.7383) - also known as Battleship Island for its shape from above - which was abandoned when the coal industry died. Travel to the island was only reopened in 2009 so, unless you were making a little thing called Skyfall, Google was your only chance to see it. You can also explore ghost towns in China (39.600411, 109.781114), Nevada (38.881508,-117.60822), France (45.928976,1.040176) and even the exclusion zone around Chernobyl (51.389553,30.099147).
4. Censored Things
Dedicated though Google is to a free and open internet, where any information can be passed between anyone at any time, even they are at the mercy of the international courts from time to time. Along with removing some unseemly images their cameras have picked up in the past there are also a handful of locations on Google Earth that have been totally censored. For some reason the door of Number 10 Downing Street is blurred out on Street View - as if there's nowhere else you can see an image of it - and Westchester County, New York asked them to blank out a load of possible terror targets (an amusement park, a beach, and parking lots). Plus, whilst you can see the likes of the White House (38.8977, 77.0366) it's an out-of-date image. You can find a list of all the censored locations on Wikipedia.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
