Google Street View: just do it?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 16:23

Opinion and Analysis

Then there’s the story of “Bill” – not his real name – who found a photo of himself asleep, half on the grass and half on the gutter of his mother’s home after a big night out which was to commiserate the accidental death of a long-standing friend.

The Sydney Morning Herald has splashed the image across its story, but has kept the man’s address and his real details secret.

Now, I happen to have discovered the specific address of this image, and out of respect for “Bill’s” privacy, I’m not going to give you the Google Map co-ordinates here.

However... I’ve been to the spot and had a look in Google’s Street View. The specific frame is now “no longer available”.

Move to the left or the right, up or down the street a couple of times, and those frames aren’t available either – clearly Google wised up this time, realising that enterprising people might just move up or down the street and turn the view around.

Problem is, they didn’t go far enough! Keep moving one more step left or right, and turn the Street View around – and in the “distance” you can still see Bill, half of the grass and half on the gutter. Use the "zoom in" tool and it’s even more obvious, although fuzzy.

Sure, most people probably wouldn’t recognise what it is, especially given the main frames are deleted, if they didn't already know what it was. But I did... and if I was the gentleman in question, I don’t think I’d be quite satisfied with the way Google has handled things.

So... Google Street View is still providing lots of interesting things for people to "go ogle" at, and full marks to Google for creating a stunning Street View streetscape of many parts of Australia.

However, the quest to get it right - while respecting people, privacy and their views - is one that Google is clearly still working on.