If you’re curious about life in other places than you might want to explore the world of web cams, simple cameras set up to record and share events online. There are a wide variety of fascinating cameras sending streaming imagery stationed in a myriad of situations, anything from a North Pole research team to a live feed from an African watering hole.
Using your favorite search engine, a simple search can unearth great finds quite easily.
Try “eagle cam”, “eagle webcam” (substituting what your particular interest is for the word “eagle”), and you might be surprised at what turns up. This works for destinations and events as well; i.e., “rockies web cam” or “fireworks webcam”.
The best way to really drill down and find a specific webcam is to use Google’s inurl search operator. Most webcams have just a few different kinds of URLs, and you can find some hidden gems that are currently in Google’s index.
For example, here’s a sample search using Google:
- inurl:/view.shtml: Append your desired location on there, for example, “france”, and you’ll come up with a lot of interesting information. You can also try inurl:view/index.shtml, or inurl:view/view.shtml for different results.
You can also use the intitle search operator to only search titles of Web pages. Try the following search strings:
- intitle:liveapplet: This is an extremely simple search that reveals a surprising number of results. Try allintitle:”Network Camera NetworkCamera” for similar but different results.