The all-seeing eye of Google has invaded Santa Clarita in the form of Street View, the innovative street-level feature that’s very useful, fun to play with, yet a bit creepy.

The search giant impelemented Street View for major cities in May of last year, and since then it’s expanded its catalog of street-level images from major cities to smaller towns around the world.

And now much of Santa Clarita has been covered and is available to viewers the world over using Google Maps and Google Earth.

So what is it exactly? Well, Street View is simply 360 degree photographs from streets in and around Santa Clarita. Much of the SCV is covered now, and one can literally ‘drive’ through Santa Clarita using Street View without ever getting in a car.

I’ll demonstrate. Streets on the map below shrouded in blue are streets that are now covered with Street View. Place the little man icon on any street thats blue, and boom! Up pops a draggable, 360 degree image of what that part of the street looks like if you were standing there.

For instance, if you drag the little man icon to McBean and Valencia, you get this image:

They also made their way up to the Magic Mountain entrance. A photo of the rollercoaster ride X2 reveals this picture was taken sometime after spring, 2008.

They even invaded the private and tony enclaves of Placerita and Sand Canyons. Hi there horsey!

and caught a guy and his dog about that was about to do its business:

For the SCV Chattering Classes, this new tool also offers a great way to demonstrate your point in a debate. For instance, let’s bring up that old divisive issue of the Valley Street gate, which the city implemented around the turn of the century after much hand-wringing in the community. Yes, even Google couldn’t get past this fortification:

What’s really cool about this technology is that it’s so easy to “look around.” Just click the right/left arrows and you can pan 360 degrees around that specific spot on the road.  What’s more, you can also “drive” down the street by clicking the up and down arrows on the grey line that goes down the center of the street.

So when did Google check out Santa Clarita? I’ve looked at scores of locations in the pictures and come to the conclusion that most of the photos seemed to have been taken early in the morning or in the late afternoon, juding by how long the shadows are, the position of the sun, and shadow position. Most seem to have been taken in the spring or summer if foilage is any indication, so these photos represent a pretty recent view of Santa Clarita.

Even though it’s fun and exciting to poke around Santa Clarita with this technology, Street View hasn’t been welcomed everywhere. In some places, homeowners were upset after the Google Street view vehicle drove up their private driveway and photographed homeowners watering flowers. In New Zealand recently, a man was photod while passed out drunk on his lawn.

But the technologies’ usefulness outweighs any privacy concerns in my opinion. I’ve used it many times to get a feel for what a destination looks like. A picture is worth a thousand words after all.

Anyway, enjoy!

Scores of Santa Clarita residents are using the presumptive Democratic nominee’s website to organize campaign and party events in Santa Clarita, at least five in the next few weeks by my count.

The events are spread out across the SCV. One takes place in Stevenson Ranch, another at Vincenzo’s in Newhall, and two are scheduled in Canyon Country.

What’s interesting about these events is that it’s not the “usual suspects” who are sponsoring them. We’re all familiar with the SCV Democratic clubs and groups that meet regularly to discuss politics and have fun, but other Santa Claritans who may not be members of those groups seem to be organizing their own Barack Obama events.

The largest of these groups is the “Santa Clarita Valley for Obama” group, which counts some 180 members. A man named Roger in Newhall started the group way back in January of 2007, but it continues to grow, adding at least a dozen members in the last few week.

This group is sponsoring or co-sponsoring at least three get togethers for Obama supporters.  They range from the typical to an oddly spiritual meetup.

For instance, on June 19 at 7pm, the group will host a get together at Vincenzo’s in Newhall. And on Saturday, June 28, a group will hold a breakfast meeting at the Saugus IHOP to support Obama. And on June 22, an associated group will hold an “energy convergence” meeting in Canyon Country where participants will “commit to send light and energy to the noble cause of getting Barack Obama elected President of the United States.”

Hey it takes all kind to get a person elected President right?

Members of the SCV for Obama group have also been writing a blog on the website. Posts range from local issues such as the MRF to national topics from a liberal point of view.

But what about Santa Clarita residents in favor of John McCain? Aren’t they organizing and holding parties of their own?

I checked the Republican Senator’s campaign website, but when I searched for local events, I got this message: “We are currently building organizations across the country so please stay tuned for more information about your state.” The site asks volunteers to sign up to help.

That’s a bit odd- McCain locked up the nomination in March, way earlier than Barack Obama. Why doesn’t he have a local events section like Obama’s site yet?

I checked the California page of McCain’s website and the only events listed are three stuffy Finance events, one in Fresno, another in Newport Beach, and another in Riverside.

There doesn’t seem to be any way for McCain boosters to link up organically through his campaign website, the way Obama supporters have found each other on the Illinois Senator’s website by simply typing in their zip codes.

Maybe it’s not fair to expect that McCain’s website will be as advanced as Obama’s…afterall, the campaign manager responsible for Howard Dean’s internet success in 2004 told Time magazine last week that his online operation was like the Wright Brothers first flight, while BarackObama.com is akin to landing on the moon.

It appears SCV voters have found a good use for the site; I may attend one of these events and report back to you.

I usually monitor how people arrive at my humble little website. By far the most interesting part of this exercise is looking at what terms people searched Google or Yahoo with and how they ended up here.

Well take a guess what term is being searched for a lot today and from which major SCV institution?

Come on, think a little.

It’s really quite easy if you review today’s Daily Brief.

That’s it, you guessed it!

I’ve recorded 20+ hits from the Hart District today, and the primary search term was “Roselyn Hubbell” teamed with the word “photo”, “picture,” or “MySpace.”

Ahh yes, me thinks there’s many boys in the Hart District who are looking to see if they would have been hot for teacher as two or three of their fellow students at Golden Valley were.

The City of Santa Clarita has scrapped an ambitious plan to build a free wireless internet network across Santa Clarita due to the failure of such efforts in other cities, SCVTalk has learned. Read the rest of this entry »

The wealthy lake-side enclave in Valencia has more plot twists and intrigue than an episode of Desperate Housewives, at least according to a search on RottenNeighbor.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the first websites to chronicle life, living, and the special characteristics of the Santa Clarita Valley will shut down at the end of the month, SCVTalk has learned. SCVResources.com, Mike Ballard’s famed site, has served up geology info, pictures, commentary and bike maps on the Santa Clarita Valley since 1995, making it one of the oldest websites in town. Read the rest of this entry »

Not quite, but AT&T is worried about the possiblity enough that it wants to replace battery systems in many of its high-speed fiber optic equipment cabinets, perhaps including ones in Santa Clarita neighborhoods. Read the rest of this entry »

Only something amazing and groundbreaking can tear me away from keeping this blog entirely SCV related, but it just so happens that today, there’s something in the news that’s compelling me to do just that. In case you missed the absolute hysteria on the web this morning, let me summarize it for you: Apple, that hip and innovative computer/consumer electronics manufacturer just introduced the “world’s thinnest notebook” to legions of Apple fans at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The new laptop is dubbed the “Mac Book Air” and is an incredible .75 inches thick weighing in at just three pounds. Anyway, let’s talk about it. Read the rest of this entry »