So Google Street view has been in use for a while now and this week its street view cameras reached Antarctica, ironic really because road names and street addresses are pretty hard to find in Antarctica! But you do get to see some very nice pictures of penguins! Hopefully Google capturing images of the penguins without their knowledge won’t upset too many people out there!
It’s not all been good news however for Google as they have faced quite a lot of opposition especially in Europe with the Czech Republic being one of the most vocal! The Czechs have claimed that Google Street view invades privacy and violates Czech law. When you look at their argument that it invades privacy, I think that if someone was going to take random pictures of you without you knowing and put them on one of the most used websites in the world, would you be happy with that? I understand that Google is actually taking pictures of the street but in a lot of cases there will be people in these photos. In some of the photos that have been taken off the website due to complaints we have seen prostitutes, drug deals taking place and fights!
Google’s marketing stance is that it is cool that you can see your street on the internet and that you can ‘explore the world’s wonders’ from your computer but extra revenue for Google aside will this service actually be much help to anybody? Or will it just be a bit of a novelty that you can see what the street that you might want to go to looks like, or even what your friend’s new house looks like without leaving your living room!
At the end of the day though now Google Street View has reached Antarctica you will be able to see some nice pictures of penguins! (Unless someone complains it breaches the penguin’s rights!)