Google Street View hits UK Streets

As of 11th March 2010 Google Street View has been opened to the public covering approximately 96% of UK streets.  The aptly named Google Cars have been out over the last year photographing us all going about our business, on busy high streets and rural country lanes. 

This Google mapping service has been somewhat of a success and according to recent statistics 1 in 5 people are using it to find their new house as well as 60% of people using it to find their way about or

researching holiday destinations.  Since Street View has arrived Google has noticed at 30% increase of web traffic to its mapping service.

In its defence over privacy issues, Google had this to say…

“Google has gone to great lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all British users to benefit from this feature…Google UK has consulted extensively with many privacy and community groups in developing the feature and privacy safeguards.”

“The blurring technology is continually improving but sometimes this means we get some false positives – in some cases you can find we’ve blurred the face on a poster or the face of Colonel Sanders on the KFC signs,”

Clearly they’ve had to face several restrictions since implementing the service, but so far it has only been a roaring success. Ed Parsons, Google’s geospatial technologist, promoted its success in a short statement,“Street View takes mapping to a level not possible before. And with so many practical applications it’s no wonder that over two thirds of people who had tried the service said they would use Street View again.”

For me the launch of this has not only been some fun, looking up my house and houses of my friends, but has been most useful as when I got lost driving I am able to call up Google Maps on my iPhone and see a street view of where I am at and where I am trying to find.

Please comment with your pros and cons of this, what I believe to be another great service (for free) by Google.