Google Street View Vehicle Spotted in College Station
December 6, 2007
Have you seen Google’s Street View thingy yet? It’s a way for you to look at a 360 degree view of certain streets in certain cities.
Major cities like San Fransisco, Houston, and Miami are available, and Google said they would add cities in the future.
Well, my wife was driving in town and saw one of the Google Maps vehicles. That means that our minivan might be on the Google College Station Street View. That would be fun. I’ll let you know when College Station Street View becomes available. The day the vehicle was spotted was December 6th, 2007, around 2:00pm, on Texas Avenue between Villa Maria and University Drive. I read that there’s 6 vehicles out there at any given time.
There’s been some legal issues with all this and privacy. I guess people don’t like the idea of not having a choice if their property or their picture are publicly displayed. Looks like Google is working to conceal faces and license plates in the future, at least in Europe, and possibly in the US. Apparently there were some people photographed walking into adult book stores and strip clubs and they could actually be identified.
I’m assuming Google doesn’t reveal where they are going to be so that there won’t be people doing things in front of the cameras. If I knew they were going to be in town, I’d probably make a sign or something. Maybe rent a mascot costume and chase the van around to try to get into multiple shots. That would be fun.
I found another picture of what one of the camera mounts look like (below), so keep your eyes peeled, and your mascot costume in the trunk of your car.
jorge
Entry Filed under: Bryan, College Station. Tags: Bryan, city, College Station, google street view, internet, Texas.
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1.
Nick | December 17, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Yeah, I saw one at Rhett Butler and Bayou Woods here. That was mid to late November though, I check it every once in a while, but nothing shows up. The one I saw was a Neon with a Google Magnetic sticker on it. The mast tripped me out, I’m sure there is a shot or two of my mental process from “what on….” to “ohh, cool!”. But that won’t make it to the final product…
2.
Jorge Goyco | December 17, 2007 at 7:25 pm
You never know. Maybe your face will be distorted (or whatever it is that they figure out about “privacy”).
I hope they use what they shot. I heard it takes a couple of weeks.
Let me know if you notice street view becomes available for College Station. And if you’re in it. I’ll point out our van.
jorge
3.
Hunny | March 15, 2008 at 12:21 am
I just saw today that Google now has the StreetView for Dallas. Dang, I wish I knew when they drove in our area so I could have waved or something. You’re lucky that you might be on StreetView. How I wish I were. I have no idea where I was at that time. Possibly at work, but I couldn’t see my car.