Google Street View has some folks concerned about privacy, while others, like myself, celebrate the minimal Internet celebrity of their city, home, possessions and, in rare cases, persons that by long odds made it into the Street View shot of a given location just as Google's contracted Immersive Media Volkswagen, with its odd, satellite-tower appendage, drove by snapping pics every 30 feet.
Given that Street View originally launched in just a handful of cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Las Vegas to start), I was surprised today to first find it now includes Raleigh, NC (part of the Research Triangle Park) before experimenting with my home address and finding not just my parent's home, but my fucking car parked in front of it, meaning I defied the odds in more ways than one. Those are California plates on my hooptie and I have driven my car back from the Bay Area exactly one time... so what kind of odds did I defy? Or, was it fate? (Spooky! I'm feeling all tingly and connected with everything.)
Anyway, I think the privacy police and the tort system opportunists are way off on this one. Street View is an awesome project because it just made my car famous, among other benefits.
If you feel like peeping your own haunts, to see any lasting record of your presence made Universal on the Interwebs by Google, here is the list of areas where they are currently providing street-level imagery:
- Albany and Schenectady
- Boise
- Boston
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Denver
- Detroit
- Ft. Worth
- Houston
- Indianapolis
- Juneau
- Kansas City
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Manchester
- Miami
- Milwaukee
- Minneapolis
- New York City
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- Phoenix
- Pittsburgh
- Portland
- Providence
- Research Triangle Park, NC
- Salt Lake City
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- San Francisco Bay Area
- St. Paul
- Tucson
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