Delicate Genius Blog

Love this new feature of Google Maps. It’s so innovative, even though I’m not sure quite how useful it is but ultra-cool none the less.

Did you know that my employer has been doing this sort of stuff for ages?

Check out a tech preview over at preview.local.live.com

I ain’t no lawyer, but I always suspected that one of the reasons holding Microsoft back from releasing this stuff to the public was the legalities of the imagery that was taken and the privacy surrounding it.

So, as I suspected would happen, it didn’t take long for the backlash over Google’s streetside photography.

Wired Magazine has put together a roundup of suspect/interesting shots, it’s worth a visit. Everything from nude sunbathers, to people getting arrested, to pics of the Google camera truck itself, to a man caught mid-sneeze.

Another interesting point was made by Brian Eisenberg. Did Google get clearance to photograph the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel? Since 9/11, cameras have not been permitted in the tunnel yet clearly, Google Street View has shots from inside.

I’m not sure what Google’s response is going to be, but I suspect the result will be that people can opt out and get removed. Hardly a good response to the problem. That’d be like me using a customers credit card without their permission until they choose to stop me (or was that a very pathetic analogy?)

And on a final geek note, I love this pic that someone put together.

-dg