Google street view...

[Redrobes]

Goes live and wide today and its really astonishing if your in the UK tho the US and other countries are pretty widely covered now too. 95% of UK covered - so far I have found only one public main road not covered. This is an incredible achievement but its pretty scary too since despite all the blurring and so on you can still make out a number of license plates and faces. The pics are still over a year old.

I checked Iwaizumi but its not covered but large parts of Japan are now.

So what do you think - you for or against ! Population here and in other countries like Germany seem very split on it tho unless your China or similar it seems that you wont get a say in the result anyway.

[Redrobes]

Thought id share some good spots now...
(Ill edit them in.)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...2,17.23,,0,2.4

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...21.76,,0,13.31

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...25.38,,0,-0.01

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...56.08,,0,-1.01

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...166.7,,1,-0.21

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,318.19,,0,3.7

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...59.995177&z=18

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...23.37,,0,11.51

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...59.997589&z=19

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...59.990355&z=17

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...95177&t=h&z=18

And to show how small our mountains are, Ben Nevis the highest in UK.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...45676&t=p&z=13

[torstan]

I have to say that I am for it. It's a great way to get an idea of an area if you're moving there and we've even used it to find out the name of a restaurant we'd been to but forgotten. It's been live over here for a year or so and I think it's great.

[Redrobes]

Its been live with very selected coverage for ages but its been whooped up today. If you haven't been on it today then try it again !

[torstan]

Wow, just looked up my parent's house in Scotland. It wasn't on until today and it's in the country so I had expected it to not be on there. But that's very cool.

[ExMachina]

I was hoping to see my car parked outside my house, but no such luck!

Certainly an amazing bit of technology.

[guyanonymous]

I just noticed yesterday that Victoria, BC had finally made it up. Amazingly clear photos, but also somewhat disturbing for the privacy crowd (on which I exists in various forms). My downstairs neighbor was quite upset that you could see in everyone's windows (including the big TV/stereo setup one had) and especially her daughter's room. The license plates I noticed while searching town were blurred as were most faces. It is fascinating tech, and, as with copywrite/DRM/piracy etc, I think that privacy expectations and beliefes will be broken, refined, changed, adjusted, and all that as the technology moves forward and becomes part of our lives. Alas, the photo of my sticking my tongue out at a mapping vehicle (might not have been google's) wasn't up!

[RobA]

It was delayed in Canada until the privacy commission could be satisfied that licenses and faces would be guaranteed blurred.

One of the more surprising uses I heard of was programatically looking for one-way street signs to then feed back the information to street map data companies.

-Rob A>

[Rythal]

aww they turned they camera off (or on) two doors down from me, so my house isn't on there (then again, that is probably a good thing)

[NeonKnight]

We have had Google Street view for my Area of Surrey, BC for a while now. I like it, because I can find things by looking at a 'What will I see when I am there' to help me find destinations.