Street View
Latest
Google Street View invades historic landmarks, makes it unnecessary for you to ever leave the house
The vagabonds of Google's Street View team have struck again, this time conquering classical French and Italian landmarks for their mothership's immense pictorial collection. As of today, you're able to drop your little yellow avatar in Google Maps right atop such famous locales as the Colosseum of Rome or Florence's Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, whereupon you'll be transported right to it (or, in the case of the Colosseum, inside it) in the same way as if they were any old street addresses. This follows, of course, Google's introduction of an intriguing indoor version of Street View for some of the world's most prestigious museums recently and continues the company's trend of bringing the arts, in this case classical architecture, to a wider audience. We just wonder what reason said audience will have to ever step outside with all this splendor at its fingertips indoors.
France fines Google €100,000 for Street View privacy violations, then mulls striking for no apparent reason
Ah, France. Land of beautiful beaches, a respectable railway system, and more unexplained delays and work stoppages than anywhere else in the developed world. Oh, and a primary airport that forces you to use "tickets" to buy food from certain vendors and refuses to complete a CDG -> JFK flight on schedule. Gripes aside, it seems that at least one thing is getting done today over in The country of the Human Rights, with France's data protection regulator confirming a record €100,000 fine sent over to Google in relation to improper data collection during its Street View sweeps. Granted, El Le Goog has run into privacy issues before on this very matter, but none quite as ginormous as these. The National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties claims that the company's infractions include "collecting passwords and email transferred wirelessly," and its highest ever fined has been levied due to the "economic advantages Google gained from these violations." We're told that the company has two months to appeal the penalty, but as of now, it seems as if Google's frightened to make any comment at all in English. Thank heavens for Translate, right?
Google Art Project offers gigapixel images of art classics, indoor Street View of museums
Google's been hard at work over the past 18 months on something not many of us have been paying attention to lately: art. Specifically, the search giant has hooked up with 17 art museums around the world to offer tours of their internal galleries, using its familiar Street View tricycles, while also doing high-res images of 1,061 artworks that may be viewed on the newly launched Art Project web portal. Also there, you will find 17 special gigapixel images -- 7,000-megapixel versions of each participating venue's proudest possession. The resulting level of detail is nothing short of astounding and we've got videos of how it's all done after the break.
Bing 2.0 brings better Facebook integration and the impressive Streetside to iPhone (video)
Microsoft just released -- or should we say, Apple just approved -- version 2.0 of the Bing search app for iOS devices. In addition to several other new features including integrated Facebook Likes on search results (really!?) and in-app checkins to Facebook and Foursquare, Bing now comes packing Streetside, something that first blew us away as Street Slide when it was still in the labs at Microsoft Research. Unlike Google's Streetview that requires a lot of forward- and back-clicking and turning in order to get a feel for a location, Streetslide provides a more comprehensive view of the shops and businesses in an area by letting you strafe down the sidewalk while zooming in and out of the buildings located on each side of the street. We took it for a brief spin (literally) and came away impressed. You won't find Streetside implemented for all locations yet (for example, San Francisco's Make-out Room was found on Streetside but the Slanted Door restaurant wasn't) but they do seem to have large swaths of major cities covered based on our brief testing of Chicago, Seattle, New York, and San Francisco. Sorry, nothing yet in London and Amsterdam but maybe you'll have better success searching your own neighborhoods. See the full list of what's new after the break in addition to a Streetside demo from Bing's architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas -- unfortunately, we're not seeing the impressive Panaroma feature he mentions in this release. Update: We've been told that Facebook Likes, like Panaroma, like totally didn't make it into the app release. It's a web search results feature only for the time being.
Street View Shocker! Google pays Boring couple $1 for trespassing
It's hardly a surprise that there's a cadre of individuals who aren't too fond of Google's seemingly omnipresent Street View fleet, but the ending of this dispute is downright absurd. Back in 2008, Aaron and Christine Boring were looking for a little excitement, and decided to find it in a courtroom; the duo sued Google for trespassing on their property while collecting photographs for Street View. According to them, Google's Street View car ignored the "No Trespassing" sign planted out front, and while they noted that they would've accepted a simple apology letter, they had no qualms pushing for damages when that wish fell upon deaf ears. The payout? A single dollar. Let's repeat that: 100 pennies. A buck. Barely enough to buy a Whopper Jr. in Portland, and definitely not enough to do so across the way in Vancouver. We suspect both parties are eager to put the whole mess behind 'em, but if you've been looking for a story to prove that America actually isn't as aimlessly litigious as the world thinks they are... well, this one ain't it.
Google Earth 6 adds 3D trees and integrated Street View
It's not hard to love Google Earth: it's free, it gives great views of one of our top five favorite planets ever, and it's free. Now Google is adding in some new functionality to push the realism to the limit in Google Earth 6. Most importantly, Street View is getting seamless integration into your virtual travels, with the little yellow Pegman set right next to the navigation controls for placing any which where. Google has also "planted" millions of 3D trees to make the 3D building view a bit more realistic, and has a new easy-access method for pulling up historical imagery. It all sounds very exciting in theory, but the best part? Google Earth 6 is free, and you can download it right now to find out for yourself.
Google releases Google Earth 6 beta for Mac, introduces 3D trees
Google released Google Earth 6 beta for Mac, PC and Linux today. Google Earth 6 includes several beefed up features, including a better integration of Street View with Google Earth's 3D environment that lets users seamlessly navigate streets across the world. And speaking of 3D environments, perhaps the biggest (and most unexpected) feature of Google Earth 6 is the introduction of 3D trees. Yes, trees. The 3D trees (over 50 different species) are included in several parks, forests and neighborhoods from around the globe. According to the Google Earth blog, Google Earth 6 includes 80 million trees worldwide. No word yet on how Google has accurately placed the trees inside Earth, but if they can make a car that drives on its own, I'm betting they've adapted the GPS-enabled cameras from Street View cars to fit on squirrels' heads. Google Earth 6 beta is available now as a free download and requires Mac OS X 10.5.0 or later.
Google fanboys egg the homes of those who opt out of being shown on Street View
You might have heard by now that some German folks didn't much fancy having their homes displayed on Google's Street View service and consequently opted to have their domiciles blurred out. Only trouble with their plan, it seems, was that they didn't account for some Google-loving zealots over in Essen, who were so outraged by the action that they ended up bombarding the offensively blurry homes with eggs and some eloquent signs. What did those placards have to say? "Google's cool." Pithy. A spokesperson from Mountain View has been quick to distance Google from the silly behavior, while also noting that it has been an isolated incident... so far, anyway. [Thanks, Milind]
FTC accepts Google's privacy apology, lets Street View off the hook
When Google admitted its Street View cars had collected sensitive data after all, it sparked a new formal inquiry in the UK, but the very same apology was just what the Federal Trade Commission needed to drop an investigation in the USA. The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection wrote Google a formal letter today noting "concerns about the internal policies and procedures that gave rise to this data collection," but satisfaction that the company's agreed to change all that and appoint a director of privacy. "Because of these commitments, we are ending our inquiry into this matter at this time," the document reads. Does that mean we can stop using this picture of Ross' old apartment in our posts? Only time will tell.
Google revises internal privacy practices, appoints director of privacy
Google's run into quite a number of privacy concerns in the past, and things hit something of a tipping point earlier this year when it was revealed that the company was snooping on WiFi data while it was collecting Street View images. Now Google has finally come back with some answers to some privacy questions it says it's been studying for the past several months. First and foremost is the appointment of Alma Whitten as the company's new directory of privacy, who will manage Google's privacy efforts across both engineering and product management, and ensure that the company builds "effective privacy controls" into its products and internal practices. Backing that up is some expanded privacy training, including a new program that all employees will be required to take beginning in December, and some new internal compliance procedures, which includes a requirement that every engineering project leader maintain a privacy design document for each project they're working on. Hit up the source link below for the company's complete statement on the matter.
Google's wardriving days are over, says Canadian privacy commissioner
When Google's Street View cars glide through your neighborhood next, you can leave the WPA2 encryption off -- Canada says that the company has "discontinued" the practice of snooping on unsecured WiFi networks with its mapping vehicles, and "has no plans to resume it." That's one of several findings in a report by Canada's privacy commissioner today, which also claims that the controversial data collection feature was the work of a single Google engineer, and that Google intends to use smartphones to pinpoint WiFi networks from now on. Naturally, the latter caused the commissioner concern that Android phones might capture the same data as the cars. Perhaps you'd best keep those shields up after all.
Google's Street View goes worldwide, Antarctica and all
Google's Street View still needs to add a lot more data on the lesser traveled roads of the world, but there's no denying that the virtual vacation assistant has evolved quite nicely since launching in May of 2007. Back then, only five US cities were programmed in; today, there are street-level views of locations on every single continent, including Antarctica (shown above, as if you couldn't tell). The additions of Ireland, Brazil and Penguinland allow Google to make the claim, and we couldn't be happier about it. Though, we still aren't canceling our scheduled reader meetup at McMurdo -- details coming soon!
Google Walking Navigation beta and Street View now available for Android
Man, we're starting to think Google should just host an I/O event every month. As the search giant continues to roll out new innovations, today's introduction involves none other than Android. Starting today, folks with Android phones using version 1.6 or greater have a pair of must-downloads to tackle: Walking Navigation (Beta) and Street View smart navigation. The former is bundled into Google Maps for Mobile 4.5, offering pedestrians a more robust routing option when using their own two feet to maneuver from place to place. It's still in beta, obviously, but we're definitely digging the "vibrate to turn" alert and the map's ability to rotate with you as you turn the phone. Street View smart navigation is the same stuff you're used to seeing on a bona fide desktop browser, but tailor made for operation on your smartphone. Finally, the new Google Maps search bar will make it even easier to find places you're in need of finding, and if you need some visual stimulation while your downloads progress, hop on past the break and mash play.
Laser backpack creates instant 3D maps, Venkman reminds you to not cross the streams (video)
Total protonic reversal? Small price to pay for an instantaneous 3D scan of a building's interior. That's what the backpack pictured above delivers, a project from UC Berkeley students and faculty Matthew Carlberg, Avideh Zakhor, John Kua, and George Chen. The pack contains a suite of laser scanners and positional sensors that enable it to capture images of building interiors as a fleshy assistant roams their halls. Those images can then be automatically pieced back together to create a 3D representation. We're having visions of instant Doom II WADs but the real boon here could be an extension to Google Maps where you could not only get a Street View but also an interior view. You know, really scope out that little Thai joint before you schlep yourself all the way downtown.
Google's South Korean offices raided by police as part of Street View investigation
Google may be trying to make nice and play ball with all the thoroughly outraged governments affected by its unintentional WiFi snooping with Street View cars, but that apparently hasn't been good enough for South Korea. Earlier this morning, Google's Seoul HQ was subjected to a raid and search operation by the cyber crime unit of the Korean National Police Agency, due to suspicions that it may have collected and stored data from WiFi networks without authorization. So it's the same old complaint the rest of the world's been dealing with, only the zeal of the methodology seems to have been turned up to 11. It'll be interesting to see if this raid uncovers anything more salacious than what we already know; we'll keep you posted if it does. [Thanks, D. Kim]
Graduate student erases pedestrians from Google Street View
We love Google, oh yes we do, but there's no question the company could use some brownie points when it comes to privacy. That's not to say Mountain View doesn't try -- the firm does blur license plates and faces in Street View when it's not unintentionally snooping our WiFi. However, a UCSD graduate student has a more thorough idea: simply make the pedestrians disappear entirely. Arturo Flores' algorithm does just that, determining what to erase and what to keep using two adjacent frames. Because Google's roaming cameras end up taking images of the same subject from multiple angles, the program can grab bits of the background (in this case, the sidewalk, lawn and building) from either side, then layer them over the pedestrian in the foreground to hide him from view. It doesn't yet work on persons who are walking the same direction as the camera, or when there are many in the frame, but these obstacles can be surmounted at a later date. Here's hoping Google's PR team gives Arturo a buzz, so we can finally enjoy architecture without all those pesky humans in the way.
Microsoft Street Slide: it's electric! (video)
Remember the first time you used Google Street View? Amazing, right? Thing is, traversing a busy urban street in a 360-degree photographic bubble can be disorienting, especially when searching for a specific address or business. So check this: Microsoft Research has developed a rather nifty solution it calls Street Slide. Zoom out of your panoramic bubble and the street is presented as a dynamic, multi-perspective "strip" giving you an instant visual summary of the surroundings -- similar to viewing the entire street from a distance. Fortunately, Microsoft took advantage of what would otherwise be the unused letterboxed screen above and below the strip to add navigational and informational aids like clickable business logos and building numbers. Pretty impressive, and Microsoft is already working on taking Street Slide mobile with an iPhone port, and no doubt a version for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 series of devices. Unfortunately, don't expect this to be released anytime soon as the team has only processed about 2400 panoramas so far covering just 4 kilometers of streets. Check the video after the break, you'll be glad you did.
Google Places' camera exposed in the convenience store wilds
That right there friends, is a real life Google employee and his trusty camera capturing the internals of a fine New York City bodega. It's all part of a pilot launched back in April to photograph the insides of businesses for Google Places. The idea here is that by seeing the actual facilities, merchandise, layout, and decor Google can help consumers make a better decision about which businesses might best suit their particular needs. First our WiFi data and now the fetid bowels of our snack shops... oh Google, is there no data left that's sacred?
Google to disclose WiFi snooping data to regulators amid allegations it was collected intentionally
And the mess gets messier. A class action lawsuit filed against Google in Oregon has now been enriched with the allegation that Google willfully collected personal data with its Street View cars, rather than doing so accidentally, as it claims. It's a bold accusation, whose primary basis is a patent application, filed by Google in November 2008, for a "computer-implemented method of estimating the location of a wireless device." A subsidiary claim references the "obtaining [of] one or more packets of data transmitted" from one wireless device to another to help estimate accuracy of location results. That's the supposedly damning verbiage that shows Google intentionally created WiFi-snooping software, and it's also what's being relied on to show that Mountain View couldn't have been ignorant of the data collection going on. Yes, it's quite a stretch, but that's what lawyers are for: mental gymnastics. Over in Europe, Google is doing its best to placate local regulators, some of whom are contemplating criminal charges against the multinational company, by agreeing to hand over all data that was collected by its vehicles. France, Germany and Spain will be first to peruse the info, though presumably there'll be an open door to other nosy governments as well. Doesn't that strike you as weird -- having your private data protected by letting a bunch more people look at it?
Google's Street View snowmobile takes your voyeurism to the Olympic slopes
There's something deliciously futuristic about the fact that Microsoft and Google are patrolling our roads, documenting their every nook and cranny with large multidirectional cameras strapped to SUVs. But what about the unpaved wilderness? Well, Google's after that too now, with its new Street View snowmobile it's unveiled just in time for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Sure, it's a bit of a gimmick, but also it's surprisingly thrilling to chase down the various slopes in use for the Olympics, and Google Earth even has most everything mapped out in 3D for your aerial viewing pleasure. Check out a video of the snowmobile in action after the break, or hit up that source link to "hit the slopes." If something gets in your way, turn.
