The Great Ganesha

So it seems that there’s been a flurry of activity after the Google ‘Street View’ feature has come out.

First off, we had a woman get frantic about the people circling her streets in vans while taking pictures of her cat. Sounds like 24? Well, think again. Here’s what she wrote to BoingBoing:

I’m all for mapping, but this feature literally gives me the shakes. I feel like I need to close all my curtains now. I’m going to look into whether it’s possible for a person to have pictures of their home removed from Google Maps. Meanwhile, I’m happy to show bb readers the photo in the interest of illustrating creepy privacy violations. Heck, the whole world can see him anyway. [link]

And here’s a picture of her cat.

[link]

Then there’s this article in the NYT about the woman, Mary Kalin-Casey, and how Google has invaded her privacy. If you ask me, the whole “privacy” thing is something Americans are obsessed with. Don’t ask me why because it is beyond me. To us desis, the concept of privacy is something that we never really gave much importance. And given the choice of being alone most of the time and having people around and poking their nose in my business, I prefer the latter. Maybe I’m biased. No, scratch that. I am biased. Privacy is nice, but the obsession with it is a little over the top. Something people with lots of time on their hands can indulge themselves in. Well, more power to you. Just let me take my showers in peace and you can look at anyone’s pussy cat all you want. [Apologies: I couldn't resist that one]

Ok, that’s all well and good. Then I come across a post on the Wired blog which has user-contributed images from the Street View feature. Here’s an interesting one – the Google van reflected in an office building’s window, while its taking its picture:

[link]

Then we have this post on Mashable.com with the Top 15 Street View sightings. Here’s one of my favorites – seems she has only half a face:

[link]

And finally to the source of it all. The Google VW Beetle. Well, it’s not really Google’s, it belongs to Immersive Media, but it’s still pretty cool. Click on the link below the image for the blog-post by PR. Differently (the image source) with a close-up of the patented (by Immersive Media) eleven-lens camera. [via]

[link]

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