Google's Street View has come to Halifax

Tonight's news included a piece about the fact that Google's Street view car has been going through Halifax - that is so neat! I have always been deeply in love with all things Google.

I was one of the first people in the world to have a Gmail address - looking back in my emails the oldest one I have is from August 2003 and Gmail didn't launch until April of 2004 - I had one of the test email accounts.

Whenever I heard about anything Google I always went and attempted to get it, and usually was successful - so I am so happy that Halifax is going to be one of the 11 Canadian cities that was going to be scanned for Google's Street View. So exciting! I can't wait until it's up and running - although I'm sure it won't include my little street out in the middle of Spryfield, which is too bad.

I'll just have to continue to suffer through printouts of Google Earth to figure out which part of my own personal shanri-la I'm going to investigate this week.

I have to say that people who are paranoid about it should just lighten up, there is no privacy left in North America - if you want privacy - move to the middle of the Arctic or Africa. As well - no one cares about anyone anyway - so if you don't want your picture somewhere - no one cares about anyone's picture anyway, so just let it go. Paranoia is a completely wasted emotion.

Tonight's news piece -



A national Post article from a couple week's ago -

A snippet of the article:

In the coming weeks, strange-looking cars will begin prowling the streets of 11 major Canadian cities and taking pictures of homes, lane ways, yards and people as part of the controversial “Street View” feature, pictured above, offered by Google Inc. The feature has raised the ire of privacy watchdogs all over the world for its candid and sometimes controversial images. The feature allows someone using Google Maps or Google Earth to click on a street or a building and see a picture of the area. The service’s ability to allow onlookers to swivel 360 degrees even gives Internet voyeurs the ability to take a virtual stroll of neighbourhoods. However, the technology has also captured images of people coming out of strip clubs, suntanning on their back decks, sleeping next to trash bins or arguing with tow truck drivers...