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Google StreetView - coming to a city near you...or Edinburgh

So, last week, there I was, slumped in a bus seat with a vacant look (as usual), when I spotted something odd coming out of a side street.
A wee black car...with a huge pole on top, covered with cameras.
Now, it's coming up for Festival season in Edinburgh, when all sorts of strangeness occurs on a regular basis, and therefore such randomness would blend right in, but this was a tad too early.
Aha - it turned a corner, and I clocked the discrete little Google StreetView logo on its side.
Since then, I know it's been into the cul-de-sac where I live (but not got my flat as it's on the wrong side to be seen from the street), and continues to travel through Edinburgh.

Now, I know there's debate over privacy issues (which, to be honest, I think are hugely overblown by the paranoid), but I personally think it's kinda cool!
The usefulness of a walk-through map of a city, with actual images of the physical, 'real' landmarks and what they look like far outweighs the possibility of someone, somewhere being spotted doing something they shouldn't be doing, or being somewhere they shouldn't be.

So, when they launch it for Edinburgh, I'll be the one with the disturbingly red hair on the top deck of the number 25 on Leith Walk....with the blurred out face :D
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Comments

Unknown said…
The last time I was in Edinburgh there was a floating head displayed on the side of a bus, so as long as they can avoid showing this on Streetmap I don't mind. I'm not sure about this streetmap, not about the privacy issues which I think are just silly but wont you need a PC/Laptop or a WAP enabled phone in order to use the site and then you're likely to get knocked down because you're paying more attention to your device then the road?
17 July 2008 at 16:23
Dumpling said…
I'm not modern enough to be able to cope with WAP on my phone (although apparently it's on it)...I was just hoping to get an idea of how the streets look before going someplace...almost didn't find the pub I was meeting someone at on Friday because I didn't know what it looked like1

And in Edinburgh, you're more likely to get knocked down because a tourist has backed into the road to take a picture of a building, and drivers have had to swerve to avoid them...
21 July 2008 at 10:31
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