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BEFORE | AFTER - ABOUT | FAQ
WHAT IS A 'BEFORE AFTER' IMAGE?
GOOGLE STREETVIEW
'TIME MACHINE' ?
HOW CAN I CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROJECT?
MOST COMMON COMMENTS
STREETVIEW COVERAGE
IMAGE SOURCES AND SHARING
COUNTRIES NOT APPEARING IN THE PROJECT
HOW WERE THE IMAGES FOUND?
HOW DID THE PROJECT BEGIN AND END?
WHO PREPARED THE IMAGES?
What is 'Before/After'? The Before/After images that Urb-i produced shows a location from the exact same viewpoint at different times, both before and after the transformation has occurred. All chosen images show some kind of improvement to the public space. These improvements include everything from increased pedestrian-friendliness and saftey features to new infrastructure for bicycles and public transport.
The images below exemplify this- the 2011 image with a car-oriented expressway versus the 2014 image which is clearly much more 'people-friendly'.
WHAT IS GOOGLE STREETVIEW 'TIME MACHINE' ??
The 'Time Machine' function in Google Streetview is what makes finding Before/After images possible. By clicking the little clock icon, available past images of the locations are shown.
Watch the video below for more information about these images:
WHAT IS A 'BEFORE AFTER' IMAGE ??
HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT GOOGLE STREETVIEW COVERAGE?
You can follow up-to-date worlwide Google Streetview coverage in this wikipedia page
Additionally, you may be able to find the upcoming schedule of the Google streetview car (Trekker)
Below is a time-lapse evolution of Google Streetview coverage between 2007-2015:
ARE ALL IMAGES FROM GOOGLE STREETVIEW?
CAN I SHARE THE IMAGES? HELP ME SELECT IMAGES!
No. While the great majority of images in the project are from Google Streetview, not all of them are. In this Wikipedia page , other Streerview service sites are listed.
Notably, images from South Korea are from Daum Maps, a local service with a more extensive coverage of the country than that of Google Streetview.
For places where there are missing before or after images, alternative images are found on the internet and the source is given in the image description.
CAN I SHARE THE IMAGES - Feel free to use our images, making sure to include credits from Urb-i and from image sources, such as Streetview and others. Also, please link our site or Facebook page whenever possible! Thanks :-)
HELP ME SELECT IMAGES - If you are interested in writing an article about the project and are having a difficult time selecting from the ever-growing selection of images on the site, we have already made a compilation of some of the best transformations.
You can access these through the Before After Favourites page
COUNTRIES THAT DON'T APPEAR IN THE PROJECT HAVE NO TRANSFORMATIONS?
Not necessarily. The project depends mainly on Streetview images availabe in a specific country, and many countries have only limited coverage or no coverage at all. For example, Germany had major cities covered in 2008-2009, but later Streetview images were prohibited due to privacy issues. This makes finding "after" images there very difficult.
Other countries have only just recently been added to Streetview and therefore have not had enough time to register transformations of past images.
HOW WERE BEFORE AFTER IMAGES FOUND?
Images were found in various ways:
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Browsing Streetview - by simply exploring cities around the world and finding transformations.
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Comparing aerial photography - using Google Earth, we compared satellite images of different years and then checked those images against Streetview.
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E-mails from users - we received many e-mails with before and after images.
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Following projects in relevant websites
HOW DID THE BEFORE AFTER PROJECT BEGIN AND END?
Map drawing and research, as well as Streetview analysis of cities, were always a hobby of Urb-i member Yuval Fogelson, who is responsible for the Before/After project. However, the findings of these searches were not saved or shared at first, but rather just kept for general knowledge.
In April 2015, we started to post a few examples on our newly-created Facebook page to share with our fans. We began receiving a lot of positive and inspiring feedback and, from then on, the collection just kept growing- with more than 1,000 images in just the first year. While it must be noted that we saw a few before and after images beforehand on different sites, we were determined to make a site that created a significant database of examples, something that had never been done before.
In early 2018 the project stopped updating the images and the collection of and production of images has been discontinued.
The images from Google Streetview that were used for this project were collected between 2007 and 2017. Later images were not included after the discontinuation of the project. Thousands of potential new before-after images could be found with the continued update of images by Google Streetview. We certainly hope that these could be integrated in the future in a similar database like this one!
WHO PREPARED THE IMAGES?
The Before/After project was headed by Urb-i member Yuval Fogelson, who curated the gallery website, the image search and the preparation of images. The images are were prepared by a team of international collaborators who volunteer their free time.
Major Before/After contributors:
Michele Piu,
Jon Seymour
Before/After contributors:
Jaqueline Rodrigues,
Eduarda Aun,
Mariana Costa,
Rodolfo Macedo,
João Bastos,
Gregory Taillon,
Rafael Nacimento,
Juliana Kakitani
HOW CAN I CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROJECT??
The Before/After Project, was a collaborative project, it encouraged people that were interested to contact Urb-i and collaborate in the production of images and update of the image database.
As the project is discontinued, currently there is no update of the database.
MOST COMMON COMMENTS
