Twitter Tracking

It turns out that Twitter is an excellent place for finding Street View sightings. Just searching for "Google Street View car" has revealed that people have apparently recently seen Street View cars in Los Angeles, New York, and Austin–three locations that haven't been reported yet! Since regular blog posts can't keep up with this, a new widget has been placed on this blog's sidebar, "Twitter Car Sightings". Hopefully, it will help us keep up with locations not covered by the media. I'll save the regular blog posts for media coverage.

So, get ready for updated imagery in the United States!

Street View Holodeck

Some Google employees have built a "Holodeck" that provides an amazing Street View experience. You can read more about it at Google Blogoscoped.

Google Trike Trying Suggestions

Google has recently released an official website about the "Google Trike" that's been spotted. It turns out, this feature is currently only available in the United Kingdom.

Google is talking suggestions for British locations that people would like to see on Street View but aren't reachable by car. To suggest a location, go to the Google Trike submission form. It's free and anonymous.

VisitBritain is helping out with this new feature. And yes, Google has found someone strong enough to ride it!

Pegman's Tricycle

In San Diego, California, the owner of a bicycle shop discovered a tricycle-like device with the Google logo on it, along with Street View laser cameras. This could be a new form of providing Street View panoramas in areas where cars cannot reach, but my hope is that it means Google is planning to release indoor Street View.

The mystery continues...

Samochody w Polsce (a Česká republika)

Krakow Post reports that Google Polska has announced Street View imagery being constructed for two cities in Poland: Krakow and Warsaw.

This is great news, but another European nation has been reported to be upcoming (one that even Street View Stuff didn't know about). According to the same article, three countries were listed as also being upcoming. Greece and Hungary were listed, along with a surprise nation, the Czech Republic!

Actually, the Czech addition isn't too surprising, since Google cars have been spotted in many other European nations.

Jittery Japanese II

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Looks like the Japanese are complaining again.

According to BBC NEWS, Google is planning to drive through the streets of Japan again. This time, the cameras will be forty centimeters lower than they were before so they can "respect the privacy of homeowners."

In Japan, buildings and homes are built closer to the street than in other nations, so Google has been apparently capturing some interesting views of people's everyday (or not) lives.

Note: Google was not forced to retake their photos; they are doing this as a favor to the citizens of Japan.

New Arrows

On Google Maps, Street View panoramas have a yellow line that roughly follows the road. This tool is for navigation. You can click the two white arrows to "drive" on roads, and also turn at intersections. Now the arrows have been updated!

Now, instead of growing larger when your cursor hovers over them, they will highlight blue.

Down the Stweet

There is a new website called Stweet that combines the popular mini-blogging website Twitter with the totally awesome Google Maps Street View.

Just go to Stweet and choose a location with Street View. Then, the website will show you the location of a recent Twitter "tweet" in that location using Street View.

If the tweet location isn't available in Street View, a Google Maps satellite photo of the area will be displayed instead.

όχι!

The Hellenic Republic has told Google to postpone sending their Street View camera cars to Greek roads until they can assure the government that it does not violate the strict privacy laws of Greece in any way. USA TODAY reports that this decision was made on May 11th by the Data Protection Authority of Greece.

The Hellenic Data Protection Authority stated that "simply marking the car" is not a good enough method of notifying Greece of the presence of Google cars roaming the nation.

The Authority has also halted kapou.gr until it uses more privacy features like face-blurring, which Google Street View already provides.

This Greek order could set the standard for many other possible Street View-covered nations in the future. However, Germany and Switzerland have already laid down the law in front of Google before. Germany seems to be allowing the images soon, but Switzerland has not made any such promises yet, as far as we know.

Privacy issues haven't been a challenge for Google in the past, and this new Greek stuff is unlikely to become a problem for them.

Az Autók Megérkeztek

Google's really working on their European Street View coverage. On May 5, Google cars arrived in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, according to Caboodle.hu.

Also, the Westmeath Independent reports that Athlone, Ireland, is also being photographed by Street View cars.