Google Street View - Down your street, or not?

You may have seen the new Google street view service that has been launched in the UK recently. Britain appears to be trailing some of the rest of the world who have had street view for quite a while. If you haven’t already heard about it, either on the news or by using it yourself I am sure you soon will.
Photographs of most major cities and streets will eventually be available to look at.

There has already been contention with people such as celebrities and others in the public domain asking for photographs of their houses to be removed from the site. Some residents in England are also less than happy with information about their homes being available online and blocked the car with the Google camera on board to prevent it from photographing their street.
Some people obviously feel very strongly that this is a huge invasion of privacy.

Google, of course, are promoting the positives of the service, and there are many - handy if you are travelling and need to look at the route, useful if you are looking for property and want to check out a few options, or you are moving to a new town and want to familiarise yourself with the layout. It can also be useful for community consultation about where to site new developments or service provision.

The negatives are that people have called it a burglar’s paradise, picking their next target from the comfort of an armchair and checking if an alarm is fitted etc. It is also claimed that cameras have caught people out when photographed in places they should not have been, even though Google state that they blur faces and car registration numbers. Whatever you feel about the service – it is certainly causing discussion and debate. www.google.co.uk/maps