Google street view - try it out

11 Mar 2010

Google today unveiled coverage of about 99% of UK roads and properties on their Street View tool.
Have you tried it out? It's good fun but also slightly disconcerting to see your house/garden/car/knickers on the line* displayed for all to see.
Click on this link first:

And then enter in your postcode.
That will take you to a view looking down on your street, just click on the little orange man on the slider bar on the left of the window and drag him to your particular bit of the road which will change to blue if it's Street View compatible
Then be prepared for a shock! You can drag the picture around, zoom in and out etc.
Have a fiddle with it and see what you think - is it an invasion of your privacy, harmless fun, a great way to plan a route, or to spy on your neighbours?
* PS that bit was a fib, Mrs SW never wears any so there's none to wash! wink

11 Mar 2010

Good isn't it?
My house looks great - they picked a day where I had recently mowed the front lawn and it's nice and sunny.
Great if I want to sell the house.
I even know which day it was cos the van belonging to the guy who renovated my kitchen is in the drive. biggrin

And it was a Tuesday cos the bin is out next door.

11 Mar 2010

And it's amazing what you find, here's a view from Bristol. Zoom in to see an accident between two cyclists.

11 Mar 2010

My bin is out too so another Tuesday in Summer. My roses and day lillies are out!

11 Mar 2010

Didn't make it to our house. :lol2:

12 Mar 2010

I believe it is an absolute invasion of my privacy and I have mailed them to say so; insist that my house and car (with visible number plate, make and model) be removed immediately. I removed consent for them to ever photograph it again too.
There is absolutely no need to be able to zoom in that far, at all. Bloody ridiculous.
I don't care if pixelating the whole thing makes the street look 'untidy' or 'unsightly', I hate being part of one of the most observed nations. CCTV in every single nook and cranny, houses logged on the internet and erosion of my human rights. I detest the nanny state and people who pry.
Wronger than a shop full of wrong things.

12 Mar 2010

Must have been taken some time ago these. My car is on the drive but the drive is not there yet its just on the grass and its my old car lol

Always wondered how well the trees in our front garden protect privacy and that confirms they do a great job. You can hardly see our house at all.
Nice feature, great for terrorists :twisted:

12 Mar 2010

Quote by tweeky
........
Nice feature, great for terrorists :twisted:

Quick!!! Phone up and report it. :lol2:

12 Mar 2010

I checked mine out a while ago and my car was parked outside my house with the bloody registration number in full view! I emailed them to complain as they'd blanked out all the others. They sorted it within an hour

12 Mar 2010

As it is a picture from a public place it is not an invasion of privacy.
It has been going on for a long time. Most populated areas are now covered.
Is it a good idea? Someone thinks it is.
Travis
I have just taken a look at an old hurnt. It has changed, I wonder when?

12 Mar 2010

check out the dogging car parks.......there's a few work vans visible......sign written lol

....and some very noticeable cars :shock:
btw.....we had to check to make sure we weren't there :lol:
one thing we have notice though........our car appears in a cpl of places quite close together........obviously photo'd on different days

12 Mar 2010

Phew just had a look at mine and i wasnt shagging in the garden!! however you could see every detail of cars and windows open and doors open! I had my house broken into not so long ago so that is a concern!

12 Mar 2010

Very disappointed - I was looking forward to being angry!
They only show the entrance junction of my road with the main one - in fact, most of the view is actually in the next postcode!
Plim wink

12 Mar 2010

Quote by
Most populated areas are now covered.

I checked the Mother in laws place which is in the sticks of Aberdeenshire and thats on as well so guess coverage is spreading. Their number plates are on full view also.

12 Mar 2010

wish i had known when they were coming...would have been so funny to moon out the window of something.
I personally haven't a problem with it..as I have nothing to hide....yes its where I live....and there is nothing stoping anyone coming down my street and taking pics.

12 Mar 2010

I like it, its great for checking a place out before you go there. I thought the number plate blocking was automatic as none have been visible on any of the places that I looked at.

12 Mar 2010

Quote by flower411
I have to confess ...I`m at an absolute loss to know why this is upsetting people !!
I drive my car around all day with the number plate in plain view !!
Osama Bin Laden could walk past my house and take a pic. Every single picture that you have ever uploaded to anywhere on the web is freely available to anybody who really wants to find it.

I agree.
It is of little or no help to burglars. They see nothing that they couldn't see walking past. It's not like it's live and they can judge if you are in or not. OK so they can see the layout of the street and where your front door is but seriously - how unique does your house have to be for that to make a blind bit of difference to a burglar?
The vast majority of break-ins are opportunistic and depend far more on open windows or keys left in view or other temptations.
The car number plates I have seen are all fuzzed out so if one isn't and it matters, you can contact them and they fuzz it. And if they can see a person in the pic - so what? What negative result could possibly come from that? OK if lover-boy number 3 is snapped sneaking naked through the shrubbery it could be embarrassing but that is the individual's fault - not Google's.
Yes, we have a right to privacy - within the walls of our home - in which case net curatins are cheap enough. But I can't see that we have a right to insist that we are coccooned in a shield of invisibility to the outside world.
If someone's curtains are open and their lights are on that is their choice - if I nosy in (from the pavement) and see inside is my choice.

12 Mar 2010

oh poo... they got my house with the primer on before the beautiful paint job that is now on it.

12 Mar 2010

TH13F
lp

12 Mar 2010

ha, I read that as ROZZER...
maybe it's the undercover persuit car?
lp

12 Mar 2010

yoor goin dahhn, slag!
(did I say that?)
lp

12 Mar 2010

Quote by varca

flower, i wonder if it's a horsey person thing as my 'garden' also looks like steptoe's yard too lol
whips

Don't tell Tweeky you two, he'll be after coming down for a root biggrin

:rascal:
Ummm yes please
Its only cus I make a few £ out of the stuff people chuck away though wink

Its not like I get any kind of strange kick out of lurking in your front garden and peeping through your windows lol

Just off to the Google street view thread bolt

Err in edit, was already here :dry:

12 Mar 2010

I guess some bugger nicked my car on the day they came round 'cos it ain't there! :shock:
Seriously though, I think it'll probably have a bit of novalty value for a while, and I guess it brings more people into Google to be targetted with ads. But I think the only time I'll use it for real will be if I'm house hunting. The estate agent's websites only ever show you the best side of a property - this way you can take a good look, and nose up and down the street to see what the neighbour's urchins are up to! ;-)

13 Mar 2010

Our road went on it this week but I wished they'd picked a day when the bins weren't out rolleyes

I find it useful when I am going somewhere that I don't know but I am guessing the novelty will wear off soon confused

13 Mar 2010

And why should I have to buy nets to provide privacy for my home?
And why did they not blur my number plate?
I don't care. I don't like it one bit. I don't trust that the government or people in places are all innocent, people/building watching benevolents and that information can't be used, in some way shape or form, against me somehow.
Paranoid? lol

Maybe.
Disgruntled, most deffinately. I should have the right to have the pictures removed if I don't want them on the internet. If people want to get off their arses and actually have a life visiting my house, well they're probably welcome in for a cup of tea. :lol: Just for making the effort!
Get a life and go see these places rather than looking at them through the window of the computer. Nothing makes up for actually being in a place, the smells, the sounds. A place we rented looks beautiful on pictures, the fact it was cracking up around our ears, right next to a motorway, auction house and you could smell the sewers in the summer when the wind was in the wrong direction.... well, bring on google smellivision!
:lol:

13 Mar 2010

Quote by varca
And why should I have to buy nets to provide privacy for my home?
And why did they not blur my number plate?
I don't care. I don't like it one bit. I don't trust that the government or people in places are all innocent, people/building watching benevolents and that information can't be used, in some way shape or form, against me somehow.
Paranoid? Maybe.
Disgruntled, most deffinately. I should have the right to have the pictures removed if I don't want them on the internet. If people want to get off their arses and actually have a life visiting my house, well they're probably welcome in for a cup of tea. :lol: Just for making the effort!
Get a life and go see these places rather than looking at them through the window of the computer. Nothing makes up for actually being in a place, the smells, the sounds. A place we rented looks beautiful on pictures, the fact it was cracking up around our ears, right next to a motorway, auction house and you could smell the sewers in the summer when the wind was in the wrong direction.... well, bring on google smellivision!
:lol:

According to this, you can have your house removed if you want to.
'How to get your house removed
To remove your house from Street View, visit the website and click on the words ‘Report a concern’ in the bottom left of the screen. Then click ‘privacy concerns’, followed by ‘my house’ then ‘I have seen a picture of my house and would like it removed’.
A Google spokeswoman said requests for images to be removed were nearly always complied with. ‘All we ask is that the reporting form is filled in correctly.
‘If someone wants their house taken off, we will do what they want but only after we have verified that they are the homeowner.’
Renders the whole thing completely pointless.

13 Mar 2010

Its a tool for some (Harry has used it in the past to suss out access on jobs) and its an excuse to be a bit of a voyeur for others.

Bit of both for me really wink

13 Mar 2010

Anyone willing to search hard enough to find pictures of me dancing naked outside goth clubs is welcome to any pics they can find...

13 Mar 2010

Quote by Ms_Whips
Anyone willing to search hard enough to find pictures of me dancing naked outside goth clubs is welcome to any pics they can find...

could i not just have them in a pm and save me the trouble?
it's that way <<<<<<<<<<< biggrin

whips
shut up - make do with the invite to look at my private album even if it's not me dancing naked outside goth clubs - those ones are reserved for those who stumble upon them in google street view!

14 Mar 2010

It can be a handy tool especially when I'm working and have to find a new house in an area I don't know. Directions are all well and good but '3rd house past the pink gates' doesn't really work when it's pitch black at 10pm!