If the most recent photo of a location is more than a few months old, don't panic--the view hasn't changed any.
Compass directions are based on the axis of the road itself--directions on diagonal roads (New Jersey, Virginia, and Potomac) will follow the general direction of the street (i.e., New Jersey runs in a generally north-south direction, so "North" is facing toward north-ish, even if it isn't exactly due north).
If you're wanting to see photos of a large building under construction, try moving away one block for a wider view.
If you're wanting to see mid-block photos, you'll need to browse the intersections on either end of the block.
The clickable map and compass has been tested with IE 6+ and Firefox 2.0 -- it may very well behave strangely in older browsers. (If you're using anything older than these, it really is time to upgrade.)
This is not anywhere close to a complete archive of my Near Southeast photos; these are just ones that have at some point been posted on the web site. Some intersections and some corners are far better represented than others, depending on what's transpiring.