Google Street View Is Available In Most Of Ada County

June 2nd, 2008 categories: 3 Legged Horses, Community Events

Internet users who click on the “Street View” box on Google Maps (maps.google.com), will be able to peek at images from streets in the Boise and surrounding communities including Kuna. The views were stitched together from images taken by Google employees over the past year from cars and vans equipped with cameras.

The feature, which already captures street scenes more than 15 cities across the country, has become popular among people planning vacations, searching for shops or restaurants, or checking out landmarks such as Wrigley Field in Chicago or the Empire State Building in New York

Now it can be used to check out a neighborhood when considering a move to a new community. This is a great tool to use to see what is around the house you are looking at. Some things do not show up on the video that the real estate agent advertises with for a reason.

Of course this is just another tool, and does not take the place of actually being there. I noticed on our street it must have been on a very hot day in the middle of the summer. It did not capture the best part of the day.

There were complains about privacy issues, everything from photos of recognizable men entering adult bookstores to an image of a cat in a window has shown up on street views.

“We take privacy concerns seriously,” said Stephen Chau, product manager for Google Maps. “All these images are taken on public streets. It’s exactly what you could see walking down the street.”

This is another good reason to keep the front of our homes in tip top shape. If I would have known they were in my neighborhood we would’ve fixed that dead spot in our front lawn! Now when we list our house, that dead spot will glare out at any inquisitive customers that use this google feature.

080117-151655 At least I wasn’t standing in my robe on the front porch!

The service covers only certain streets and neighborhoods in the cites where it’s now available, although in some locations, such as the Treasure Valley, the majority of streets have been photographed. Google plans eventually to extend Street View to cities and towns of all sizes worldwide.