Hooray for technology!
There were rumours, but finally Google put up their hotly disputed Street View pictures for a whopping 96% of UK roads. You can even go as far as the Shetland Islands with this thing.
Now, call me a nerd (okay, once is enough…) but I love it. I know it took a while and caused Google a royal pain in the arse when people kicked up a fuss about privacy and all that, but tools like this are amazing. No questions asked (Well, I’m sure one or two of my lecturers would).
Since they released it’, I’ve lost hours looking round places I know and places I’ve wanted to visit. Of course I’ve visited my house, but I’m not going to show you that – this is the Internet after all.
But thanks in part to Timi, we’ve already found Jordan coming out of NSB and Jake’s mum, but I’m looking for the cock-ups. The dogs being run over, the bloke entering the porn shop, the house on fire. You know what I mean. If you find any, leave a comment or something, and I’ll love you forever. Promise. 
So what does this sort of thing throw up? I mean, great for technology. You can now get a proper look at houses without actually going there (obviously not inside – Google aren’t that sophisticated/creepy yet – but Microsoft are) which isn’t simply its ‘best side’. You can look at landmarks from home. You can give someone better directions to a meeting. The list is virtually endless.
But then you’ve got the other side of the coin. The “Oh, it’s an invasion of privacy” crowd. Okay, if they were taking a picture of your face up close, blowing it up and putting it on billboards around the country with a “LOOK AT THIS TOSSER” subtitle, I’m inclined to agree with you. But when they’re blurring your face out, you’re essentially part of the landscape. You shouldn’t be doing stuff you don’t want people seeing in public, should you. At least, not when El Goog are around.
So go spend some time in the new, in-depth UK Street View and lose a couple of hours. Let me know if you see yourself!
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