Google street view is a powerful tool that millions of people use every day.
UT senior Angela Vasilopoulos raised a good point when she said, “I just recently used it to check parking for a place I’ve never been to, and that was really helpful. I saw that the parking garage was far away from the theater, so I planned ahead for valet.
“It’s great for the visual driver, someone not too good with directions. But I think there’s a fine line with it too, and I don’t think it would be wise if Google frequently updated.”
The passenger seat view Google gives into front yards and parking lots proves that this powerful gizmo is a double-edged sword: the program is helpful when used correctly, and very dangerous when taken advantage of.
A car or bicycle parked outside of someone’s house or any other indication of personal property could be potentially harmful—one can only guess how Steve Jobs felt when his Mercedes was imaged outside of his California home in 2007.
On Sept. 30, Google announced that its street view feature now operates on all seven continents, the latest additions being Brazil and Antarctica.
Fortunately for Google, privacy issues down on the ice caps shouldn’t be much of a problem, considering the largest populations there consist of penguins and whales.
“At the same time though, I feel like Google should start focusing on making street views of more populated areas where people can benefit from a street view, like Athens, Greece and Venice, Italy — neither of those places have street view yet,” Vasilopoulos said.
Do we really need images of penguins nesting in the ice cap or would people benefit more by taking a look at the streets of Rome prior to taking a trip or studying abroad there?
Junior Brett Fusaro agrees that imaging such remote regions like Antarctica is interesting but unnecessary.
“The fact that Google has enough money to create a program that stretches to every continent including Antarctica shows they have way too much cash and time on their hands.”
In reality, street view in the Antarctic is more like iceberg view and the penguins don’t need much guidance getting around the glaciers. So yes, street view Antarctic is definitely not necessary, just more of a completion of the software.
Senior Nathalia Pirela understands the concept of the program, but thinks the idea in general is a violation of privacy.
“I think street view should just be street views. You shouldn’t be able to identify people in the photos. There’s no way Google could get permission from everybody they’ve photographed so they shouldn’t be doing it. But I guess with the penguins they’ve imaged … they can’t complain right?”
Now that Google street view can officially take you anywhere you want to go, the only uncharted territory left is outside planet Earth. Google would just have to trade their vans in for space shuttles.
Maybe soon we can look forward to Google Moon and Google Mars. Who knows, with technology like Google has today, the sky is not the limit.
Sophie Erber can be reached at serber@spartans.ut.edu.