When Google Street View launched in San Francisco several months ago the buzz was almost deafening.
Last night Google went live with Street View for much of Chicagoland. Check out this view from South Lake Shore Drive, and enjoy this fabulous new tool to view Chicago neighborhoods. You can click on the view and rotate it 360 degrees, or follow the arrows for a virtual trip down the Drive.
Amazing. I just looked at my own front door. As this Trib story reports, some people are worried about privacy – I’d be curious about Yo’all’s take on that.
This sure is a lot of fun. Judging by the construction on a house, I would say my street was “pictured” about two weeks ago.
Amazing and creepy. I just read my license plate.
It’s going to open a whole debate on privacy, I guarantee that.
From my perspective, the argument that showing online what is already visible on the public way is reasonable – but if the zooming power allows one to actually see inside a property, that’s crossing a clear line.
For example, legal or no, I think most people would be either freaked out/outraged if a stranger was peering into their windows from the street using binoculars, and would be very likely to call the cops.
Google is using lower-resolution images than when they first went live in SF, partly in response to some of the privacy concerns that were raised.
It’s not like it’s a continuously updating live image… Any privacy issues are limited to the exact moment that the photos are taken. I don’t really think it’s a big deal.
it’s a slippery slope, though – the potential for it to be continuously updated is clearly there.
How would they do that? They’d need cameras on every street operating 24/7. Oh wait, Mayor Daley is already doing that… Doh!
My part of Ravenswood isn’t mapped… so if you’re worried about privacy, I know some nice houses and condos for sale.
But seriously folks…
Great tool for clients moving to the city. It’s just one more toy to use for marketing. However, like anything video, virtual or otherwise, you really don’t know a place until you’re standing there for yourself.
Well, they at least could have picked a nicer day to take the images, the few I glanced at made Chicago look gray and lifeless due to the weather. Or maybe Chicago is always like that & I’ve just convinced myself otherwise.
snapshots in the listings when house-hunting, nothing astounds me more than people who use some lousy sub-amateur photo to try and sell their most valuable asset (ie, do you really want to use a photo on a gloomy overcast day?) are crazy. you could tell from the listing of the house we ended up buying that they took the shot right after it rained because the sidewalks were still soaking wet.
hmm, apologies for some shoddy cutting and pasting while writing that, this is why I try not to violate my “have coffee before doing anything” rule.