Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) unveiled yet another toy this week to add to its arsenal, Google Street View. For five U.S. communities -- New York, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles -- one can pull up street-level pictures of the main thoroughfares. The video was taken with an eleven-lens camera mounted atop an auto, but the images uploaded are only slightly clearer than those of convenience store holdups.The coolness factor is the way it allows the viewer to pan at least 180 degrees from any point. The fear factor for those who mistrust Google is that its library of surveillance footage might just capture somebody with somebody else's wife, someplace other than the someplace they were supposed to be. However, I'd be hard-pressed to recognize individuals in the images I've seen. I do wonder if this is a factor of the source image, or a decision by big G to offer low-res images both to increase load speeds and diminish the likelihood that a figure in the shot can be identified. This should appease those who fear Goo-oogling.
What this feature does demonstrate is how quickly Google is assembling an image database that can be hugely important (and profitable) in the virtual worlds of gaming, flight and driving simulation, travel and emergency response. What we see here is, I suspect, just a nice side benefit of that initiative.
If you have trouble pulling up the site, be patient. It's being hammered today by vanity browsers, people who live in these cities looking for images of themselves.
What this feature does demonstrate is how quickly Google is assembling an image database that can be hugely important (and profitable) in the virtual worlds of gaming, flight and driving simulation, travel and emergency response. What we see here is, I suspect, just a nice side benefit of that initiative.
If you have trouble pulling up the site, be patient. It's being hammered today by vanity browsers, people who live in these cities looking for images of themselves.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-01-2007 @ 5:24PM
Thomas said...
People seem to be concerned about privacy issues concerning having their pictures posted regarding this project.
To address concerns of privacy and for the sake of operating system competition I wrote a post on the Google Maps Zoom Feature and what it could be renamed.
6-01-2007 @ 5:26PM
Thomas said...
Sorry for the 2nd comment - here is the link to the post for renaming Google Maps Zoom Feature
http://scissormonkey.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/google-maps-zoom-feature-renamed-to-address-privacy-concerns/
6-01-2007 @ 11:17PM
MM said...
Has anyone consider that this feature will enable pedophiles, stalkers, robbers and all types of criminals the ability to monitor the habits and routines of people/places. For example, a pedophile watches a school and takes notice to children that walk home alone and which route the child usually takes! Or a robber monitors a place of business for their daily routine,etc. etc.. You don't need to see the faces you just need to know their routines!
6-02-2007 @ 4:14PM
HARLEY said...
I THINK THIS IS NUTS AN MM HAS A VERY GOOD POINT- I SEE A GOGGLE CAR ON MY STREET IT WONT BE ROLLING FOR LONG PUTING OUT ADRESSES AND CARS PLATES AND ALL THAT TO THE WEB- WAIT TILL SOME KID GETS ABDUCTED FROM THEIR IDIOTIC BS MIGHT AS WELL HAVE A WEB CAM ON EVERYONE AS STATE LAW- SMH LOOKS LIKE ITS BIG BROTHER STEPING IN SMH- ANYTHING FOR A BUCK- WHY DOSENT GOOGLE GOOGLE THEIR KIDS AND BROAD CAST IT WORLD WIDE - SOME FOLKS JUST DONT GET IT- NEXT HELECOPTERS FROM GOOGLE GOING TO FILM WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR BACK YARD BE IT A BBQ OR A MIDNIGHT SKINNY DIP WITH YOR WIFE OR GIRL FRIEND- I WOULD SUE THE S----- OUTTA THEM
6-03-2007 @ 8:58AM
Stever said...
Are we to assume that this auto / camera is constantly patrolling each and every street? or more likely it has taken these pictures at some point in the past like all the other images on google? If the latter is true then there usefullness to the criminal mind is limited at best.
Me thinks we have much larger worry's than this. The whole thing is just another distraction for the time being until the next folderal.
6-02-2007 @ 3:42PM
ericsmusclecars said...
Don't do anything illegal and you don't have to worry who is watching. We need to do something to deter crime....you can't carry guns, the cops are outnumbered.....YOU GO GOOGLE !
http://www.ericsmusclecars.com