So, the new Google Maps Street View is certainly an interesting new tool. Essentially, it allows you to get a street-level view from a Google map. From the online demo, they link directly to such views of Times Square, New York, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and South Beach, Miami. It also provides many voyeuristic opportunities to view things like a jogger, a license plate, and Steve Jobs’ house.
While I certainly am fascinated by the technology involved, I can’t help but be at least a little bit wary of public imagery that can get so “up close and personal.” Still, I guess you could always try to avoid the van covered with cameras if you see it coming your way. 
I would be willing to bet that someday map services such as Google Maps will be able to pull information from public city cameras and other such systems to provide actual real-time imagery and/or video of a location being searched. It sounds far fetched, but I would not be surprised at all
Oh, and here is one of the vans that has been capturing the images, here is the company contracted to do the work and here is the team putting it all together at Google.
Note: Sorry to those of you who caught an incomplete version of this post earlier today. I was running out of the house this morning on my way to work and hit Submit instead of Save on the post.
Leave a Reply