Google street view comes to the UK

[Mark]

:)

[Brown, Jon Brow]

You need to make more effort with your threads Mark! :\

[Simmi]

Is this the same thing as you can get on multimap now? Totally awesome for looking at your surrounding area from above. I suppose robbers will start using it to plan escape routes and things like that. For some reason that was my first thought when I looked at it. Bit worrying.

[Dave B]

Cue lots of moaning from privacy campaigners, and those who have grappled to comprehend a half-arsed report in the Daily Mail.

[Simmi]

Cue lots of moaning from privacy campaigners, and those who have grappled to comprehend a half-arsed report in the Daily Mail.

It's awesome for nosy people. If you've ever wondered what is behind that gate. Now we can all find out. It might also be good for the rally fans for scouting stages, access points. I'm not sure how out into the sticks it goes or whether its just for more build up areas.

[Dave B]

Turns out the Mail Moaners (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1162992/Google-Street-View-launches-25-cities-Britain-users-360-degree-close-live.html) have already started, althouh to be fair the stupid comments are in the minority:


This is madness and an infringment of personal safety and privacy. If I were to stand outside someone's house, taking detailed photographs of the garden, the residents, their children, their cars and what's on the washing line, I'd be arrested and hauled down to my local nick quicker than you could say, "Dixon of Dock Green." - Seymour Clearly, WHINGING-ON-SEA , Sussex (in the dictatorship of Great Britain), 19/3/2009 6:57 (oh dear, somebody's very angry with the world.)
[/*:m:1600rm9z]

Strange how I cannot take photographs of my own son with his rugby team, yet these cameras can film and intrude into every corner of our homes and publish them online.
[/*:m:1600rm9z]

this is SPYING and nothing less! You and your property will not remain private, leaving it free for councils and crooks (or the same thing!) to assess what you have, for crooks, to check means of access/getaway routes and so on...It's a total invassion of our privacy.
[/*:m:1600rm9z]

Surely this is a gross invasion of my privacy?! Especially if I also appear in these photos? Whatever happened to the privacy laws? Google should check with each individual house to ask if that resident wants their house broadcast across the world, and they should be able to opt out. I think this is disgraceful.
[/*:m:1600rm9z]...and my personal favourite....


They are pretty scary these people. Imagine one day this was being done by machines with greater than human intelligence and you begin to wonder what sort of experience it would be to live in the future.
[/*:m:1600rm9z]Yes, imagine that. :uhoh:

[Mark]

It's interesting for a few minutes, once you've looked at where you live, where you work and your friends houses, and that's it really :p

[Wade91]

i've had alot of fun with those kinda maps, looking at those maps and zooming in on you're house, and you're neighbers houses can be alot of fun :p

[edv]

I use it primarily for route planning...you know, is it possible to make a turn at such and such intersection, etc.

[emporer_k]

I've found where I work allready but my house doesnt have the pictures.

[inimitablestoo]

Can I take this opportunity to apologise to all the disabled people who may have been waiting for their road tax exemption certificates, who will not be getting them just yet because I did spend most of this afternoon looking at stuff on Google Street View instead :D

[Hazell B]

D'you know, I agree with some of the Mail readers' comments.

I've worked damned hard to shield my property at the stables from robbing pikey eyes, yet now they simply have a quick look on the net and see exactly what I own and they can steal - they don't even have to leave their caravan in the middle of the night to scope joints now.
I can't cover large trailers over, so I've grown thick hedges and built fences and walls in the hope of keeping my belongings out of their sight .... items I've worked hard for and can't possibly insure as we're uninsurable after several break-ins.

Some of you may find it funny, but I bloody don't.
Planners won't let me build secure buildings and government is happy to allow my goods to be shown to everyone in the world.

The ONLY people who will genuinely benefit from this crap are the ones who steal. The rest of us can find routes via maps, look at places with our eyes and manage just fine without it.

[LiamM]

There is no privacy laws concerning this though, its only the same you walking down your high street tomorrow snapping away with a camera.

Essentially, anybody can turn up at any point of these maps in real life and see the same thing. Hence there is no privacy being infringed upon.

Oddly, my mums house near Nottingham has been mapped by Google - the camera car drove up her street last August, but, those maps arent online, when the rest of the Nottingham/Derby area is

[donKey jote]

It's interesting for a few minutes, once you've looked at where you live, where you work and your friends houses, and that's it really :p
yep, just spent a few cool minutes, looking at where I used to live and where I used to party :p :

[donKey jote]

just saw my parents' house... windows wide open too :laugh:

[J4MIE]

Are they still driving around adding to it I assume?

Pretty cool I think :up:

[veeten]

... and government is happy to allow my goods to be shown to everyone in the world.

oooh, I saw Hazell sunbathing in her yard. :p :

Well, this Google stuff is worth something. :D :p :

[Mark]

Are they still driving around adding to it I assume?

Pretty cool I think :up:

Not sure but I'd think so. For example included in yesterdays update was street view of Rouen in France, where previously the closest one was Paris. So I don't think it's just a matter of doing one country then leaving it at that.

My problem is I can't get flash install on this browser, it works in google earth but the interface isn't so good there.

[ChrisS]

Are they still driving around adding to it I assume?

Pretty cool I think :up:

Yes, Google's ultimate goal is street views of the entire world

I believe the google cars were in the UK during the summer so I guess it takes about 7-8 months to get the photos online

[Mark]

Yes, Google's ultimate goal is street views of the entire world

I believe the google cars were in the UK during the summer so I guess it takes about 7-8 months to get the photos online

I would imagine most of that is number crunching through their server farms. The images all have to be sorted and correlated with GPS readings etc, I'd imagine that takes quite a bit of processing to sort out.

[Hazell B]

Essentially, anybody can turn up at any point of these maps in real life and see the same thing. Hence there is no privacy being infringed upon.




I disagree.
For starters whilst anybody can walk along and see the same thing, they can also be seen seeing it - so those who steal would find life so much easier when working on their next project. They have zero chance of being seen and remembered by the locals. They can also scope out several times as many homes at no cost to theselves and in so little time.

On the privacy side the law might say it's not illegal, but the law was written long before this was thought of. They're showing the entire world my home, not just anybody who's willing to make the effort to come here. I'm told you can get your images removed and shall do so when I get around to it, though I'm more concerned about my fields appearing than my house.

[Daniel]

I disagree.
For starters whilst anybody can walk along and see the same thing, they can also be seen seeing it - so those who steal would find life so much easier when working on their next project. They have zero chance of being seen and remembered by the locals. They can also scope out several times as many homes at no cost to theselves and in so little time.

On the privacy side the law might say it's not illegal, but the law was written long before this was thought of. They're showing the entire world my home, not just anybody who's willing to make the effort to come here. I'm told you can get your images removed and shall do so when I get around to it, though I'm more concerned about my fields appearing than my house.

I agree Hazell. When Google's street view comes to our area I'll be quite kindly asking them to remove all pictures with our house in it. I see it as a very needless thing and an invasion of my privacy. If anyone wants to come and take a picture of our house they're allowed to by law and I can't really stop them.... but an easily searchable database of these pictures? i don't want to participate and for that reason I'm oot.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

No one is interested in your stupid houses!!! :p

[veeten]

I am... at least when Hazell is sunbathing. ;) :p :

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I am... at least when Hazell is sunbathing. ;) :p :

She's a northern girl! Nobody wants to see that! :p

[Daniel]

No one is interested in your stupid houses!!! :p
If no one is interested then it shouldn't be online :)

I'm quite careful about my privacy which is why although I do tell some people on the forum where I live, I do ask people not to post the exact town I live in and so on and so forth. It's also why I don't have my full name on my Facebook account either. With Facebook or with the forum I have control over these things and can choose to disclose what I want or not disclose it yet in their infinite wisdom Google have decided that they'll publish pictures of our house without giving us control over whether the pics are posted on the internet or who can see them. It's all about choice and I'll be the first to request that any pictures of our street which show an inch of our property be removed. It's just the principle of the matter.......

[Brown, Jon Brow]

If no one is interested then it shouldn't be online :)

I'm quite careful about my privacy which is why although I do tell some people on the forum where I live, I do ask people not to post the exact town I live in and so on and so forth. It's also why I don't have my full name on my Facebook account either. With Facebook or with the forum I have control over these things and can choose to disclose what I want or not disclose it yet in their infinite wisdom Google have decided that they'll publish pictures of our house without giving us control over whether the pics are posted on the internet or who can see them. It's all about choice and I'll be the first to request that any pictures of our street which show an inch of our property be removed. It's just the principle of the matter.......

My personal view is that you are just paranoid about nothing :)

[Daniel]

My personal view is that you are just paranoid about nothing :)
Fair enough ;)

But after learning about how easy it is to identity fraud someone I'll stay paranoid thanks :) Did you know that you can go into any post office and with just a letter from a benefits agency and a bank statement from the last 3 months or two utility bills you can redirect someone's mail and before they know it you've applied for thousands of pounds of credit in their name with all the details that have been sent out to you.

Now you'll see why i prefer not to share my details publicly online :)

[steve_spackman]

Caught out by Google's roving mappers?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7954641.stm

[ShiftingGears]

Can't say I am a fan.

[Hazell B]

My personal view is that you are just paranoid about nothing :)

I used to think exactly that.
Wait until you've been robbed or stalked and you'll soon change your views ;)

At the moment the only people on here who are happy about it are (I hope) looking at the topic as a law abiding citizen. Turn it about and try thinking like a criminal, then you'll see it benefits you a thousand times more than those of us who are 'normal'. Just like when you probably all thought five years ago that criminals wouldn't bother carrying bolt croppers to smash into your shed for a fifty quid pushbike, then you found out they'll bother for a five quid item.

[Hazell B]

She's a northern girl! Nobody wants to see that! :p

Thought I'd missed that, eh?

Rear of the Year 2002, thank you very much ;)

[cosmicpanda]

My house is on streetview (though, admittedly, in New Zealand). I don't really mind.

I looked at the UK streetview and it seems to me that they've only really concentrated on the cities. I find this a shame as I quite like the really obscure roads that the NZ streetview has, like this one:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-35.201166,173.146763&spn=0,359.845505&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-35.186912,173.125373&panoid=lt68o-wdZhEF3akLswioWw&cbp=12,350.27443463568267,,0,5

Or, perhaps, a less obscure one, better known as the Whaanga Coast:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-37.834056,174.784069&spn=0,359.845505&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-37.872296,174.768577&panoid=qwvrCfY3zoHezpvwwHJKzw&cbp=12,199.53505463568268,,0,5

[Daniel]

My house is on streetview (though, admittedly, in New Zealand). I don't really mind.

I looked at the UK streetview and it seems to me that they've only really concentrated on the cities. I find this a shame as I quite like the really obscure roads that the NZ streetview has, like this one:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-35.201166,173.146763&spn=0,359.845505&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-35.186912,173.125373&panoid=lt68o-wdZhEF3akLswioWw&cbp=12,350.27443463568267,,0,5

Or, perhaps, a less obscure one, better known as the Whaanga Coast:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-37.834056,174.784069&spn=0,359.845505&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-37.872296,174.768577&panoid=qwvrCfY3zoHezpvwwHJKzw&cbp=12,199.53505463568268,,0,5
They're expanding their coverage in the UK in the near future :)

[Daniel]

My house is on streetview (though, admittedly, in New Zealand). I don't really mind.

I looked at the UK streetview and it seems to me that they've only really concentrated on the cities. I find this a shame as I quite like the really obscure roads that the NZ streetview has, like this one:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-35.201166,173.146763&spn=0,359.845505&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-35.186912,173.125373&panoid=lt68o-wdZhEF3akLswioWw&cbp=12,350.27443463568267,,0,5

Or, perhaps, a less obscure one, better known as the Whaanga Coast:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-37.834056,174.784069&spn=0,359.845505&z=13&layer=c&cbll=-37.872296,174.768577&panoid=qwvrCfY3zoHezpvwwHJKzw&cbp=12,199.53505463568268,,0,5
Going on the rally theme :)
THis road is part of the old shakedown stage for Rally Australia :)

http://maps.google.com.au/?ie=UTF8&ll=-32.318546,116.07296&spn=0,359.881039&z=14&layer=c&cbll=-32.318434,116.073017&panoid=VHEYlksJ5Nx1b6XdUbtNvA&cbp=12,2.0601137922720762,,0,-7.467532467532468

[Mark]

In some areas, e.g. around Dundee, Aberdeen and Norwich, they've done a substantial part of the rural area too. But other places, like Gateshead, it looks like they've just done half the town then given up!

I've been trying to find either my car or Karens car on there, but no luck. I suspect I'm at work, but I can't see into the works car park.

It's already proving useful, tho. We had a visitor to our building who found his way in advance using street view. It would have also saved me getting lost in Sheffield last month too!

[cosmicpanda]

Going on the rally theme :)
THis road is part of the old shakedown stage for Rally Australia :)

http://maps.google.com.au/?ie=UTF8&ll=-32.318546,116.07296&spn=0,359.881039&z=14&layer=c&cbll=-32.318434,116.073017&panoid=VHEYlksJ5Nx1b6XdUbtNvA&cbp=12,2.0601137922720762,,0,-7.467532467532468

Awesome :D

[MrJan]

Thought I'd missed that, eh?

Rear of the Year 2002, thank you very much ;)

There's a small but important difference between rear of the year and arse of the year :p : ;) :D

[stevie_gerrard]

This is my new favourite way to waste time at work :p :

I was very impressed with the detail of it all, and how well the pictures came out. Very enjoyable to look at :up:

[Dave B]

As an aside, is this the greatest image ever captured on Google Maps?

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2009/3/24/1237906734712/A-house-near-Hungerford-t-001.jpg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2009/mar/24/penis-drawing-roof-google

:eek:

[Mark]

There was a similar one in Yarm which is now only visible on google earth using historical images. They covered it up pretty quick!

[Drew]

I saw a bright orange Belgian van with cameras on it and there were things saying street mapping etc etc, so I followed it for ages (yes I had nothing better to do today). So I hope i'll be on googlemaps :D

[Dave B]

Brilliant.

Idiots. Morons.

The Streetview car was hounded out of a village by paranoid residents worried about their privacy. Like fools, they then went to the papers. Result: their houses have just been shown in fantastic clarity and detail on the lunchtime news, and pictures of their village plastered over the tabloids - along with details of how they consider themselves affluent and have already suffered a spate of burglaries (long before Google got involved).

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6022902.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/03/google-street-view-broughton
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/7980737.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166722/Angry-villagers-form-human-chain-stop-Google-Street-View-filming.html

[Captain VXR]

I found a nissan cube in there
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3329/3409634646_773d0412a2.jpg?v=0

[Daniel]

Brilliant.

Idiots. Morons.

The Streetview car was hounded out of a village by paranoid residents worried about their privacy. Like fools, they then went to the papers. Result: their houses have just been shown in fantastic clarity and detail on the lunchtime news, and pictures of their village plastered over the tabloids - along with details of how they consider themselves affluent and have already suffered a spate of burglaries (long before Google got involved).

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6022902.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/03/google-street-view-broughton
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/7980737.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166722/Angry-villagers-form-human-chain-stop-Google-Street-View-filming.html
I like the pics used in this story :D

http://www.dailytech.com/Angry+Brits+Chase+Away+Google+Street+View+Car/article14760.htm