Google Street View Goes Live in UK

Back in July I wrote about the controversy surrounding Google Street View. I supported the facility, which allows users to get a street level view via Google Maps.

Today the service went live in the UK with photographs at street level for 25 cities across the UK from Southampton to Glasgow.

The moment I saw the service had gone live I mentioned it to the people I'm working with. Within minutes we were all looking at street level views of our homes, previous homes, parents homes etc, as though we'd never seen them before.

I don't know why we experienced such a compelling fascination to stare at our own homes, as captured by Google, but we did.

How has Google managed to make everywhere look so sunny and bright? It doesn't seem to be raining anywhere - not even Glasgow! It's summer in all the streets I visited, which makes the world look nicer. Nicer than the bare winter trees we have now at any rate.

Not only that but Google, after requests from the Information Commissioner has blurred all the pedestrians' faces and car number plates to allay privacy concerns.

It's not only me, Channel 4 News has been busy searching too. C4 News has just reported that it has found faces which have not been blurred. They show someone leaving a sex shop whose face has been missed (although subsequently blobbed by C4). A google spokesperson says anyone can ask to have their face blurred, or even their image removed if they've been missed.

No one is quite sure how google stands to pay for their work - other than increased traffic to their site, which they certainly got among my team tonight. Mind you we use google many times a day anyway.

Google Street View - Privacy Controversy

Google Street View camera car snapped in London's Golden Square and posted online by altogetherdigital.com

The BBC's 6 o'clock news (and elsewhere) reports on the concern privacy campaigers have about Google's latest mapping tool 'Street View'. Google's camera car has been spotted on the streets of London. It has a large camera stalk mounted on the roof, so its pretty conspicuous. One respondent on the BBC's blog says the vehicle was even pulled over by uniformed police outside Westminster's Parliament building!

How Google Street View works

Privacy campaigners complain that people caught by Google's cameras will be shown for all to see in places they don't want to be seen, or doing things they shouldn't be doing. Google says it blurs faces and car registration plates and it's incorporated a facility for users to report inappropriate views which can be accessed on its site.

I'm planning and researching a forthcoming trip to Northern California at the moment and I've found Google's mapping tools invaluable. I like that I can see all the hotels (and reviews from Tripadvisor) displayed on the graphic map and then click into the satellite view, or even the street level view to see what the area really looks like. So much more reliable than the guide books - and I've discovered a couple of hotels I had on my short list which are right next to the Freeway down ramp! (not something many hotels make a virtue of on their own website photos!).

I'm a strong supporter of personal privacy - but I don't see how Google Street View hurts us. I'd go further and say it helps us. The BBC news report asks how you would feel if your house is shown online? Passers-by see my home everyday. The aerial photo image of my street has been accessible via Google Earth for several years without incident.