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Search forBristol's turn for Google photographs
Thursday, July 17, 2008, 08:46
A car bearing the Google logo and with a tripod camera on its roof has been spotted taking photographs of homes and businesses across Bristol.
Google Street View is a new online programme allowing users to see images of streets and homes, an extension of Google Earth which shows streets as aerial images.
By clicking on arrows on the screen, users will feel like they are walking down the street and will be able to look right, left or behind them during their virtual, 3D tour.
The programme has already been rolled out in the US and has sparked several websites dedicated to spotting funny and unusual things.
Rob Campbell, 46, who saw the Google car in Kingsdown, said the car drove past his home at about 3pm yesterday.
He said: “I was just talking to someone and spotted this black hatchback, with Google on the panel, drive past.
“It’s probably all harmless but there’s something rather creepy about it.
“If anyone else was standing outside your house with a camera, taking a picture, then you’d probably go and stop them. But they’ve probably taken thousands of pictures by now without anyone challenging them.”
Google has confirmed it is currently taking photographs for Street View UK but would not say where and when they will be taken.
Before its arrival in Bristol, the Street View car had already been spotted in London and Birmingham.
Privacy International UK said the tool could breach data protection laws if people’s faces are shown.
Laura Scott, spokeswoman for Google, said: “This is the next advancement for Google maps. This has not been launched anywhere other than the US and we have also done a version for the Tour de France route which launched a few weeks ago. This is street-level imagery which will give people a 360 degree view of the streets of cities and towns.
“There are lots of areas where we think this can be used. It is great for tourism, if you are looking for a hotel and you want to see what the area or the parking is like you can take a look. It’s also useful for students studying urban development who need to look at street layout.
“It’s been used for businesses. In the US a lot of real estate companies use it to let house hunters get a feel for an area.
“It’s also a tool for smaller local businesses to showcase their store front and give them more prominence.
“Also just as Google can be used for driving directions, street view gives less confident drivers a chance to see what they can look out for at street level when they are driving, rather than just ‘turning left’ they may spot street landmarks they have seen online.”
When asked about invasion of privacy, she said: “It’s about locations not about people. We use face blurring technology, most streets don’t have that many people on them and where they do we have effective technology to make sure they are unidentifiable. We also blur licence plates.
“However, if even with this technology, people are concerned that they or their cars and homes are identifiable there is a simple button they can click to remove themselves from the site.
“These images aren’t live or in real time and when the site launches things will have changed so you wouldn’t be able to monitor habits.”
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