If you think you live in a very isolated world with all the gadgets and things that you do only for yourself, think again. Technology might have fostered something isolating, but the new things that are coming out are definitely making things come together. For example, take a look at gaming consoles. Wii, X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 have features that don’t just allow you to play against another person in your house, but you can also play with people around the globe, and you can talk trash at the same time.
Aside from this nifty tech, you also get to know more about places in different parts of the globe. Bloggers have taken it for themselves to post pictures about their experiences as they write about it, and give they give honest reviews of what really happened. They write directions and all the other things you would expect in a place once you set foot there.
Google has taken it into their account to do something like this in a creepy way for some I guess. If you want to know more about the place, you don’t need to restrict yourself to blogs, visitor’s reviews or things like that. At first Google has given us the maps, then the satellite view, and with the enhanced pictures later, a bird’s eye view of the place. Now they have outdone themselves again. If you go the Google maps homepage, you’ll have the option to look at certain places in street view.
Street View in Google will give you more than you ask for. Still at this early stage, the street view will give you the option to look at some streets like you are standing there. It’s like standing in the middle of the road and looking around where to go. You could see the shops, the cars, and the people walking in pictures. It’s a pretty neat thing considering you’re not familiar with the place and you want to know where you are and were you are going. Many have already reacted to this move by saying that it invades their privacy. It’s much like Google having the ability to zoom in to your house. This is just turning it a bit more personal, which of course causes further outrage. Yet Google is unapologetic since this information can be very useful for people who want not just mere pictures, but who want to know what to see in raw form and not in any glorified pictures of the city.
As of the moment there are limited cities and streets that have this functionality. However, it won’t be long until all the streets in the US will have a street view of their own. This maybe the end of the line for Google when it comes to privacy, but it’s up to the government in censoring these services so that they are not misused for illegal purposes.
- Suggest site to related web directory categories: Regional Maps, Privacy Issues
