Take a look at Merced on Google Maps. [1]

See all those blue lines? Those are the streets mapped out by Google's Street View, a relatively-new offering that depicts panoramic street-level images of various locales around the world. Notice anything curious? Yep. Street View completely ignores Merced.

Modesto and Madera apparently went online sometime in June, but so far, our town of nearly 80,000 people doesn't seem to warrant Google's notice.

I contacted Google's media relations department to find out a little more. Spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo couldn't say when Google might stop by Merced: "I can't confirm any future Street View launches, but we're continually working on bringing Street View to a wide range of new areas. Initially, we focused on large cities and their immediate surroundings, and have recently been expanding to a diverse range of areas."

Fine. I can accept Merced being behind Modesto, Fresno and Stockton, but Madera? Los Banos? Newman? Patterson? Gustine? What does Google have against us?

All that said, there are quite a few interesting pictures of moments in time caught by Google Street View vehicle.

Some examples:

Post-it car

Woman in car trunk

Scuba diver on city street

Many more here: http://googlesightseeing.com/category/street-views/ [2]