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.

Avoiding the Rush

According to The Earth Times, Google Germany has agreed to let Germans censor their Street View imagery before it is released onto Google Maps and Earth. This is an excellent decision, for it will help Google avoid as many privacy-invasion outbursts as possible from this nation.

Previously, Google had taken pictures of cities in northwest Germany, but they, along with Switzerland, prevented Google from releasing them online. Now it looks like Google's ready to continue. I wonder what will happen in Switzerland?

Kanalima!

Over the past four days, at least three people have spotted a Street View camera car in the state of Hawai'i, according to Hawaii Blog. In fact, eBay cofounder Pierre Omidyar was riding his scooter in Hawai'i when a car passed him. As seen on his Twitter page, he's not very happy about that.

Currently, the only American state not available in Street View is Hawai'i. It looks like Google has finally found a way to get some of their cars to those remote islands. Pegman's also been touring the Canary Islands, Singapore, and Taiwan. But Hawai'i is so far away from mainland that it's often not considered a part of any continent.

Google's putting those cameras to work! Get ready to virtually visit the Aloha State!

Hei, Google.

According to Helsingin Sanomat, Google Street View cars are roaming around the nation of Finland, photographing Helsinki and other areas.

A few Finns have complained about the time of year in Finland, which apparently isn't very good for taking photographs. However, Google Finland country manager Petri Kokko said that the feedback for the photographing has been 99% positive.

Kettering Coming

According to the Northants Evening Telegraph, the English city of Kettering is being photographed by Google. The Street View car has been seen all over the city.

According to the writing, "it is hoped" that the coverage will go online "by the end of 2010."

The article's a good read. You can tell that a few Kettering residents don't know the law too well.

Google har Indfundet sig

According to The Copenhagen Post, Google Denmark country director Peter Friis released a statement saying that the Danish cities of Århus, Copenhagen, and Odense were being photographed for Street View, as of two days ago.

If true, Denmark will be the nth European nation to have Street View imagery. Then Google will have only n more to go. The current European nations Pegman has visited are:

1. France
2. Italy
3. Spain
4. United Kingdom
5. Nederland

Germany already has some coverage, but due to privacy laws, they are not available yet.

UK Cars

Here is a list of different locations throughout the United Kingdom where Street View cars have been spotted, according to the Telegraph and News & Star.

• Bexhill-on-Sea
  
• Blackburn
  
• Bolton
  
• Buckingham
  
• Carlisle
  
• Chelmsford
  
• Cumbria
  
• Eastbourne
  
• Ipswich
  
• Perthshire
  
• Reading
  
• Royal Tunbridge Wells
  
• Renfrewshire
  
• Worthing
  

Google's coverage of the United Kingdom could become the best in Europe within a year or two.

On to Toronto!

According to the National Post, Google will release its Torontonian Street View imagery within weeks!

Apparently, Google already has Street View imagery from two years ago when the feature was added to Google Maps. Cassandra Jowett writes that Google's cars are acquiring more recent photographs for the locations they had missed.

Here are some of the locations in Toronto spotted by locals:

• A firefighter followed a camera car along the Gardiner Expressway from Spadina Avenue to the South Kingsway.
• Someone saw a Chevy cobalt at the intersection of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue.
• South of Bloor University on University Avenue.
• One car was seen as far away as Branton, about twenty miles from downtown Toronto.

In the past, whenever a new nation was released on Street View, more than just one city was added. According to this post, Toronto is only one of the eleven cities Google is filming. If it's true that Google's had Canadian imagery since 2007, then it might not be too long before Pegman helps us around the entire Great White North.