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Google Street View Gallery  (View post)

Tom E. Canavan [PersonRank 0]

Sunday, June 3, 2007
17 years ago15,461 views

I can understand peoples' privacy fears. The logical solution would be for google to take out an ad in the paper where they are going to be shooting and let people know. You could leave your blinds closed on that day,stay out of adult bookstores,don't piss on the side of the road, or not meet your gay lover. Just a thought!

David Hetfield [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Ha ha...
That's a good advice Tom :D

Pranav Chavda [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

LOL – totally love the Noindex, NoArchive, NoFollow sign. :D

Ryan [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Privacy? If it's visible from the street it's not "private."

If you don't want anybody to see it, do it behind closed doors.

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Hey Philipp, I'm currently working on the same article as you! :-) You will see my article tomorrow.

But my best "source of inspiration" is Streetviewr (http://streetviewr.com/), I even send some interesting views to this website time to time...

pjh [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I don't think the image at the link mentioned
(http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/01/google_street_view_w.html)
is of the Google car...

Other photos have been appearing – e.g.
http://streetviewr.com/img/van2.jpg
that look suspiciously similar to the car shown in the mirror reflection for one of the images you posted:
http://blogoscoped.com/files/street-view-gallery/8.jpg

[It also looks quite similar to the vehicle here:
http://www.google.com/maps?q=970+OFarrell+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94109,+USA&ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.786917,-122.398094&cbp=1,313.526530345659,0.527702791882909,3&ll=37.803409,-122.407608&spn=0.032145,0.086517&z=14
- showing a reflection in a window of a car that is not actually seen in the street view itself...]

egon [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Exactly, Ryan. It's ridiculous people are making such a huff about this. Like they said in the NYT article, it's the same thing someone would see walking down the street, and they could take a more detailed picture than this.

lzlr [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Here is a small study of how the van traveled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7YRtIKuKyE

Zim [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

My gosh!
I'll use that sign if they reach Argentina.

George R [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

robots.txt
User-Agent: Google Van
Disallow: bedroom

http://www.flickr.com/photos/k40s/523099223/

Fred [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Check out his huge list of hundreds of Google Street View sightings:

http://www.laudontech.com/StreetView/streetview.html

Beware: Addictive in Nature

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Thank you for the video Izlr!

Tadeusz Szewczyk [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I especially appreciate the pics at Cnet:
http://news.com.com/2300-1025_3-6187837-3.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

The one where two guys taking a break from work were caught by their employer through Street View is my favourite.

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I bet it won't be long until we see exhibitionists who see the van coming up the street and hold up signs or drop their shorts or whatever.

malignedtruth [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

No such thing as Privacy, on public streets!

If you want privacy, pull the shades, close the doors!

I have four cameras on my house eaves, looking out onto the streets around my house, watching my driveway and our vehicles.

Where this computer is located, I view the monitor, plus, watch out through the huge glass doors.

Next, I will be installing wifi cameras on the neighbor's home, to look up and down the cross street as part of my Neighborhood Watch program. Will have the VCR ready to record and catch those illegal aliens who dump garbage and beer bottles on our streets (privately owned streets, posted at the entrances!).

Google is simply more of a great thing! Our entire society needs to be on camera, so we can catch the irresponsible psychos!

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> it's the same thing someone would see
> walking down the street, and they could
> take a more detailed picture than this.

I sort of agree, but one caveat: if someone on the street points a camera at you repeatedly, from different angles, you might notice it more strongly than a passing car (and perhaps stop entering the adult book store).

I wonder what US laws are in regards to *secretly* taking photos of you on the street, with a sort of hidden spy-cam (I'm not saying the Google van is secretly doing this, after all you can notice it if take a second to look at the car).

> I bet it won't be long until we see exhibitionists who
> see the van coming up the street and hold up signs
> or drop their shorts or whatever.

I've heard from a Google Germany employee that they most likely will expand Street View coverage in the US for now. Maybe if you live in a big US city that's not yet been covered with Street View, you should put a big sign adressing Google on your window...

> Here is a small study of how the van traveled:

That's a very interesting idea...
Wonder if Google will add Street View to the API, so that I could e..g create a 3D first person shooter placed in San Francisco (the player could move through the streets and it would look like it's animated)?!

> No such thing as Privacy, on public streets!

By US law, at least... in other countries, things may be different. Like in Germany.

> Our entire society needs to be on camera

Interesting proposal. To test psychological impact, we should start tracking every move made by an engineer of the Street View team, from the point he or she leaves their house to the point they enter the Googleplex. Then, the full video will be placed on a public website everyday in high resolution (along with some social functionality that will allow people to vote on the most interesting scenes, so that they will be "escalated" quickly). Will the Google engineer mind or not?
(By the way, I'm playing devil's advocate here to emphasize that it *is* a trade-off – information vs privacy. I still hope they expand this cool feature all around the world, though perhaps they want to blur faces at one point...)

Inferno [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I don't know how many people will come out to tan from now on... ;)

Dan Tobias [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

How long before there'll be a crime-drama show (like Law & Order) or TV mystery movie where the plot involves a clue to a crime turning up on a service like this?

Mrrix32 [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

<<Disallow: bedroom>>
I can't be bothered to find the picture so every one with Philipp's book turn to chapter 8 and look at the picture :-D

It's coming true!

Gradiva Couzin [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

> I have four cameras on my house eaves, looking out onto the streets
> around my house, watching my driveway and our vehicles.

Phew, and *you're* worrying about psychos?

On the one hand, our privacy laws and general common sense would agree that what is viewable from the street cannot be considered private. On the other hand, there is a difference between a person who is present on the street viewing you at that moment and a photo being available to anyone worldwide via the internet. I may be comfortable walking in my neighborhood in sexy clothes (don't count on it!), but not if there is a surveillance camera there that my grandmother can monitor at any time.

The new privacy concerns raised by Google Street Views just goes to show that our laws – and even our common sense – will need to play a litte bit of catchup to modern technologies and the changing availability of information.

Personally, I lean on the side of privacy and opt-in methods. Since opt-in is virtually impossible for Google Street Views, maybe they could create a simple "request removal" button so that you could opt out of having a specific street location included (or request removal of a specific image).

I haven't thought too deeply on it. I'm looking forward to what the next 5 years holds!

Gradiva

Harley [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

This site that has a large selection of StreetView finds:

http://www.mapmole.com
  

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> maybe they could create a simple "request removal" button
> so that you could opt out of having a specific street location
> included (or request removal of a specific image).

Actually they do have something along the lines – when you're on a Google Maps Street View, click the help and then click "report inappropriate image," and you'll be referred to a URL like this one:

<<Report Inappropriate Street View ...

Why are you reporting this street view?

   ( ) This image contains inappropriate content
   ( ) This image infringes on my privacy
   ( ) This image presents personal security concerns
   ( ) Other (please describe below)>>
http://maps.google.com/local/add/flagStreetView?ie=UTF8&ll=37.805207,-122.421942&spn=0.053099,0.10849&z=14&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.778433,-122.425828&sig=00e23e96eedced96da7fe0e9ccb2700f912121f5b926e95a9caadb33d9f00e20ce243413991c17761ba4ddd94264b77c4cb4e77599238bc4270edca21a9249769d5fe97034cf2e247c

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> This site that has a large selection of StreetView finds:
>
> mapmole.com

One of the best Street View aggregators (new category of websites? :)) yet...

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I found Spider-man! But U have to wait to see it, I sent it to streetviewr.com :-)

Anyway, i LOVE that one :-D So explicit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaboobie/530105823/

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

(Added one more photo to the end of the list... thanks Manoj Nahar! http://search-engine-blog.seocase.net/)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Found your pic Tom :)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&layer=c&cbll=37.806251,-122.416302&cbp=1,206.953562883089,0.252954438897201,2&ll=37.813581,-122.415032&spn=0.014273,0.040169&z=15&gl=us

Also, nice list on Zorgloob...
http://www.zorgloob.com/2007/06/ta-mre-en-string-sur-google-maps.asp

Matt Johnson [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Nice! More fun pics from street view can be found at:

http://www.streetviewfun.com

Julien [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Hey :)

Here is some stuff if you really want to be "noindexed, nofollowed and noarchived" : http://www.spreadshirt.net/shop.php?sid=65442

Enjoy :)

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Do you.............Yahoo?
http://benizi.com/pics/google-yahoo

Mother Earth [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

haha...Also, if you get the driving directions from NY to London, for instance, google maps tells you to swim across the atlantic!!!

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Do you..... get owned Microsoft?
http://redir.fr/gsin

ViewR [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I sincerely hope I see that google Van passing by. I don't care where I am or what I'm doing, I'm dropping my pants and mooning it. I mean, how could you not?

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