I had a seriously heavy "drive"around the new streetview areas of America and i have come to the following conclusion – everywhere in America looks the same. I cant quite put my finger on it. I jump from the outskirts of Chicago to Pittsburg to Philadelphia and it all looks the same.

No wonder they are in awe of places like London or Paris or Berlin.
If you go to France it "looks" French, if you go to Germany, it "looks German". And that is the case with every European country. Now, i'm not anti-American (i'm pro-America , and anti-EU personally) , but by god does streetview make me understand why the American tourists love the Eiffel Tower so much. There's just so much more variety in Europe. Try it yourself – have a streetview drive around the places I mentioned.

Oh, come on, those are only a fraction of America. There aren't even 20 cities on Street Views and you are making such conclusion?

Haochi: Don't you get it? America's skyscrapers are all souless behemoths that are basically giant bricks. Also, the Golden Gate looks just like the Brooklyn Bridge painted orange, and the Statue of Liberty is just the Lincoln Memorial with the statue on top of the building, and the St. Louis Arch is just the Washington Monument bent sideways. And all the state capitols all look like the Capitol in D.C.

It's obvious that Europe's cities are obviously much more distinctive. I mean, their McDonalds look nicer, for a start...

Yeah, and in some european countries hey talk different languages.

> No wonder they are in awe of places like London or
> Paris or Berlin.

Well, being born in Germany, I was in awe when I first went to New York and saw the giant buildings :)

But yes, I suppose every country has their own style. And when you start comparing the US to Europe, you start comparing a single country with multiple countries (even though the US is of course much bigger than your average European country). So if you want to compare the same things maybe you need to compare e.g. the variety of the US with the variety of only France.

> If you go to France it "looks" French,
> if you go to Germany, it "looks German".

Berlin for instance looks very different from say Stuttgart. Both may look distinctively German though... that's better left to non-Germans to decide, it's hard to get a fresh view on the place you live in :)

> I mean, their McDonalds look nicer, for a start...

Yeah, and our Starbucks, KFC's, Burger King's, Ikea's, Benetton, Body Shop's... they all scream European ;)

(Though there *are* some places in Europe where you basically don't see these chains.)

Well what about the american "States" and the "States" of the EU?

I see it as if it is run similarly, Whitehouse makes laws for all states, EU makes laws for all states; states can make some laws.

And remember the European Constinuency Philippp?

James we have states in Germany too.

But I do agree it is possible to compare the US to Europe for certain things, but if it's diversity of culture & architecture you want to compare (as in the original post above), I think it can end up as an unbalanced comparison. Yes, Germany, and Spain, and France may look more different, that's because they're completely different countries, including a different language, including having fought wars against each other etc.
But if you want to check for diversity among only a single country, you need to compare e.g. two US states, say California vs Florida, with two German states, say Baden-Würtemmberg vs Northrhine-Westfalia. Let's see if we ever get Street View here so you can do it from the outside :)

i think what he means is that basically America is a VERY BIG place. We in Europe tend to compare America to a country, like France or Germany or Britain.

When in fact it's actually a continent of 50 states.

So when some maniac does a school shooting in Virginia, we in Europe tut-tut and go "oh well, thats America for you".

But its not. That's Virginia.

It's like having a bad opinion on all of Europe because of something that happens in , for arguments sake, Slovenia.

Streetview has definitely been very educational for me. For a start the Hollywood "American Dream" gets short shift when you drive around the more deprived areas of New York City. It ain't a pretty sight!

a short note – my 5 year old utterly loves "streetview" and being able to just drive around a city on another continent. the educational aspect of this on kids is something that we cannot quantify right now. And I thank Google for that – for making the world that ever more smaller.

For if we can drive around each others cities (and I hope they extend it to Europe) , then we can begin to drop our attitudes about each other. I love, for example, in streetview just seeing everyday Americana – police cars, folks shopping, the road repair team – basically, everyday life. It's normal and just like what we have in Europe, but a bit different. To often we're fed America through glamorous Hollywood films and TV series, when the gritty reality, in a way, is Streetview.

"And all the state capitols all look like the Capitol in D.C."

yeah. good point. i've seen a lot of them via the Panoramio layer in Google Maps, and yeah , they really are mostly the same.

I can kind of understand the original point – the Eiffel Tower is unique to Paris. We seem to have more of a uniqueness in the various countries in Europe. Different stuff and different languages, so no wonder the American tourists are in awe of what we take for granted over here.

Then again, the Americans don't understand how we Europeans put up with periodic socialist governments and "socialised" healthcare and "gun control".

They guess they love their freedom more than nice buildings, art and social medicine. There's good points in both views I suppose. With total freedom comes lack of a safety net for society.

"Let's see if we ever get Street View here so you can do it from the outside "

Googles NEXT streetview really does have to be somewhere in Europe.

for starters it would impact their American audience. I would guess that Americans are kind of bored of "driving" around their own cities -i would guess that they really want that virtual tourist experience that we are now experiencing. London, Paris and Berlin for starters would be awesome.

justinf: In comparisons between Europe and and the United States, it's true that the United States as a whole may be more diverse than your "average" European country, but IMO the difference between states is far less than the difference between European countries. Modern American states are bound together far more strongly by language, culture, and common history than any two European nations; I think California, New York, and Texas probably have more in common than France, Britain, and Germany.

So while both comparing the US to Europe as a whole and comparing the US to a single European country aren't quite equal comparisons, I think the latter is closer to the balance.

Oh, and as for the Eiffel Tower: I think you missed the point of *my* post. While state capitols, the Capitol, and half the city halls around the US look unnervingly similar, there are lots of distinctive landmarks in major cities (Statue of Liberty, anything in Washington, Golden Gate Bridge, St. Louis Gateway Arch, Seattle's Space Needle, etc.), not to mention natural landamrks.