Slashgeo

Google's recent StreetView feature generated a lot of ink lately. All Points Blog links to a Wired article describing how people can indicate Google to remove imagery where they can be seen. From the article: "Google has blinked, backing down from its demand for my driver's license and a sworn statement and agreeing not to use the information I submit for any purpose other than processing my request." Google product counsel Daphne Keller personally phoned Bankston to tell him about the change in policy, and then Google's help desk sent him the new requirements: [...] (1) Your name (2) The location of the image in our service [...] That means Google has no content-based standard for a take-down, and no verification that the requester is the person pictured."

Slashdot discuss a story on Google Street View data acquisition. Their summary: "Popular Mechanics takes a ride in an Immersive Media VW Beetle, one of the six cars that drives around America shooting images for Google Maps Street View. Mounted on the roof is the $45,000 Dodeca 2360 video camera, whose 11 lenses record a 360 degree field of view at 30 frames per second, sucking up as many as 200 miles of city scenes per day. The setup takes up the whole back seat and part of the front passenger seat, and is all controlled with an off-the-shelf Logitech game controller. Includes a cool interactive raw video of a drive through Manhattan."

From the All Points Blog : "We have been contacted by the military," Google spokesman Larry Yu said. "In those instances where they (the U.S military) have expressed concerns about the imagery, we have accommodated their requests."... The images that worry the Pentagon include views of bases, including security at the entrances to those installations. "It actually shows where all the guards are. It shows how the barriers go up and down. It shows how to get in and out of buildings," said Renuart, commander of U.S. Northern Command.

For more information and a link to the original article, please visit the All Points Blog.
Update: 03/07 21:51 GMT by S :Slashdot users also discuss the issue. I dare remind our users that anyone can Google to remove specific StreetView imagery.

Mapperz runs a comparison of MapJack vs Google StreetView. From the entry: "Well who wins? In this case, it's unfair to say either is a clear winner, Mapperz prefers MapJack's 'User Interface' has more functions more interaction on the surroundings, while the might of Google tries to map and photograph every square inch of every US City (and told not to in places) they do have more coverage. But MapJack wins on being the first location outside of the US (Chiang Mia, Thailand)." Disclaimer: MapJack is a Slashgeo.org donor.

The Digital Earth Blog brings us news about this new StreetView API. From the actual press release, here is a snippet : "We've worked hard to ensure that Street View in the API gives developers the power and control they need to embed this functionality in their own websites in whatever way they wish. The API allows you to embed one or multiple panoramas in any location on a site and move, remove, hide and unhide them as necessary. Panoramas can also be easily integrated with the rest of the Google Maps API to allow synchronization between the map and the panorama viewer. The blue tile layer overlays which show where Street View data is available can be added to your own maps using the GStreetviewOverlay class. The following example mimics the Google Maps functionality with the tile layer and rotating Street View icon"

For more information and the full artcle, please visit the links above.
Update: 03/28 19:28 GMT by S : The official Google LatLong blog also informs us 13 new U.S. cities now have StreetView data.

The Digital Earth Blog has a blog about this. Remember, nothing is confirmed, so don't take it too seriously until it happens. From their blog : "According to Rafe Needleman of Webware, StreetView will be available inside of Google Earth “within a few weeks”. Rafe quotes an unnamed source with that info. He states that it’s not clear if this will be a public release or an internal testing release. If done smoothly, this could be very slick. It’ll be interesting to see how Google implements it."

For more information, as well as some Virtual Earth talk, please visit the Digital Earth Blog.

Here's the recent Google Geonews not yet covered on Slashgeo. There are new countries which benefit from the Weather layer of Google Earth, including Europe, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico (previous announcement). Google also announced a major imagery update last week, touching over 86 countries. There's the 2008 Olympics torch relay maps and related information. We now have the New York Times directly in Google Earth in real-time, the GEB also provides additional coverage (thanks Frank for letting me know directly). Here's new Google Transit covered areas and discussion about GTFS, an open format named Google Transit Feed Specification. There's a new Greenpeace layer, UNICEF and much more in Google Earth. Spatially Adjusted has an entry about leveraging Google App Engine in GIS applications. Slashdot discuss the privacy lawsuit against Google StreetView, and so does the Spatial Law blog. See also our Google topic for Google geonews already covered on the site.

The What is special about geospatial blog reports about this new Google endeavor. From their summary : Google has recently updated their StreetView data in Manhatten. Biside some improvemetns in image quality, Google has implemented some automatic face-blurring technology. Form the screenshot you can see that it does work really nice. It blurs the faces, but doesn’t detract too much from the imagery.

For a more detailed explanation of why this is occurring, please visit the blog link above.

I saw a link via the %scratchworkspace% blog which eventually leads to this article on the Valleywag blog which has an interesting twist to the Google Street View privacy issue. From the Valleywag article : "Google Street View's picture of a burning house on Eagle Point Drive in Sherwood, Arkansas, went viral over the weekend, prompting the solicitous censors of Mountain View to remove a 360-degree chunk of imagery from Google Maps. Google can erase the picture, but it can't erase this fact: The Google Street View car making the rounds in the neighborhood that day kept driving past the burning home, taking its assigned pictures. All of these images, like the one above, remain visible in Google Maps."