Pack away the SatNav; we now have Google Maps with Street View
Thursday, March 19th, 2009I’m sure everyone knows of Google Maps and the amazing satellite views they provide of the world we live in. In fact just this week it seems Google’s images of the sea have helped rediscover a 1000 year old sea trap off the Welsh coast; but have Google gone a step too far with their launch today of Street View?
If you don’t know, Street View is exactly that, a 360-degree photographic record of 22,369 miles of British roads. While being impressive, this is a fraction of the UK’s 213,750 miles (342,000 km) of paved roads, so although the venture is to be applauded it is also slightly disappointing that the service (which is now live) features views of only 25 UK cities. However, for those cities featured (and thankfully Cardiff is one of them), we now have brilliant street images which overlay Google Maps, giving you street names and property numbers to accompany images of the road, payment, front gardens and buildings on either side.
As with all Google developments the service is easy to use and is linked from the standard Google Maps. Once you’ve chosen your location (using the search), you enter Street View and navigate around using the arrows, direction wheel and zoom.
Here is Albany Road according to Street View; although you should be advised that these pictures were taken on a Tuesday during our wash-out summer of 2008 so don’t show us at our best. That said, if you ignore that fact several of the main shops of now closed, this is still a pretty good view what where I live and is definitely one for the digital family album.
Albany Road, Street View (Woolworths), Summer 2008
48 Albany Road, Street View (Thomas Ford), Summer 2008
60 Albany Road, Street View (Coffee#1), Summer 2008
Privacy Concerns
While this development is truly an amazing undertaking and should be welcomed as a great public service, it seems not everyone agrees. Concerns have been expressed that this level of photographic detail represents an invasion of our privacy and has even been challenged in US courts. One Pennsylvania couple, Aaron and Christine Boring, accused Google of privacy violation, negligence, unjust enrichment and trespassing for showing their home in the Street View feature. Although the case was lost the challenge generated massive worldwide media coverage and begs the question, if you really want privacy was this the right way to go about getting it.
To respond to these concerns Street View now features technology that automatically blurs both faces and licence plates; although it is still possible to establish that the wrong car was parked outside your house on a particular day last summer. Although Google did not seek permission from the communities covered, or get prior consent of those who appear in the images (which is required by International law where images are used for commercial purposes); Street View was not ruled as unlawful by the Information Commission when given the chance to do so and means the service has now gone live.
25 UK Cities on Street View
The UK Cities currently available on Street View are: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea and York.
While it may be another year or more before the rest of the UK is covered, for those who live in these “Street Viewed” cities, or plan to visit, you can now dispense with the SatNav and instead use your iPhone to access detailed maps, with precise directions and photographic images of the street you’re looking for. That must be better for everyone, and is especially helpful the businesses who are still here and in desperate need of extra publicity.
