Do you remember a year ago when Sad Panda disappeared, presumably escaping the city heat and taking a little vacation? No word on if he was out at his Wall Street post last week during the heatwave, but a reader wrote in to tell us he spotted him on Google maps. And sure enough, here he is frozen in time walking on Washington Street! He's now a part of that special club of people captured by the Google Street View camera, joining the likes of Rachel Maddow's web producer, who discussed his Google appearance on her show last year. more ›

The Google street view car has captured plenty of odd incidents since its creation. Pat Kiernan points to a recently discovered one in Manhattan, taken at 29th and Park — where a collapsed (possibly dead?) man lay on the street as a crowd gathers around him. It strikes us odd that Google seems to have taken the steps to not only blur, but pixelate the man's face... why not just remove that section of the block until a reshoot is possible? more ›

Back in the day, being able to say, "Hey it's that Eyewitness News van!" after a run-in with the news vehicle was enough fodder to get through cocktail parties for the month to follow. Nowadays that sort of excitement is reserved for spotting the Google Street View vehicle, currently at the tail end of a month where it is traversing the five boroughs in order to update the nerd's eye view of New York on Google Maps. Street View is so popular that it's even spawned a website dedicated to capturing and sharing some of the more unusual images caught by the Google vehicle. While some of those pictures include being able to detect New Yorkers at specific spots around town, a concern for the local ACLU, Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo told the Times, "The spirit of Google Maps is not to tie in a specific person to a specific place." We passed along a Street View sighting by Nylon last month; the Times mentions the car's appearance on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. While Google keeps many details of the car on the DL, the driver did tell one New Yorker that his next stop was Dubai. more ›

What do tourists like more than walking slowly in bunches, visiting Ground Zero, buying fake handbags in Chinatown, and wearing socks with sandals? Eating at restaurants they can find at home! The Post is reporting that IHOP (aka the International House of Pancakes) is in talks with Vornado to open a location at 1540 Broadway (btwn 45th and 46th). It would be the 2nd Manhattan location for the chain - the first location opened in 2004 at 135th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem. more ›

In their quest to take over New York, Bowery Presents is opening yet another venue! Ask just about anyone (and we have) and they'll say that the Bowery Ballroom is their favorite place to see and/or play music - so who better to open even more spaces than the creators of that one? more ›

Google Maps has upped its considerable offering to include "Street View," which offers views of the certain locations at the street-level imagery. The areas where you can see images are noted by blue lines on the map (click the "Street View" button). Manhattan is pretty covered and downtown Brooklyn is covered, but the Bronx, Queens and State Island views are pretty much limited by major roads. Below is 1 Centre Street; you can't get an image of City Hall, because the blue line doesn't go into City Hall Park. Here's what Eastern Parkway at the Brooklyn Library looks like and this is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. more ›