Comments on: Big Brother Google Is Watching YOU!

By: shealyisnottheantichrist

shealyisnottheantichrist — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:46:28 +0000

I guess that I win the prize. The street view for my address shows me in my yellow Beetle driving down my own street. I am famous, and probably immortal. Thank you, Google.

By: ericn1300

ericn1300 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:45:46 +0000

The Ada County Assessors Office's web site has aerial views of your house along with the lot size, structure details and appraised values for the past seven years on line for anyone to see. I can actually check how many bathrooms you have there. They have a street view also if your house has sold or had construction permits that may have changed the value in the last few years. http://www.adacountyassessor.org/propsys/ click on the interactive map for the pics. Very accurate, if a bit outdated. I sold that van a few years ago. EDITOR NOTE--And just WHO was visiting you that day while your wife was at work? :-)

By: dog

dog — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:41:38 +0000

Folks, don’t be scared of stuff like this. Be like most Idahoans and figure if you have nothing to feel guilty about or never committed a crime then what’s the problem? Your life should be an open book. I can’t wait until the computers get so much info on what we buy, think, where we live, they will understand us so much better. It’s all about our safety. Don’t you want to be safe….from terrorists?

By: SearchBoise.com

SearchBoise.com — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:07:56 +0000

On a related note, if you enable the 3D layer in Google Earth you can fly into Downtown Boise and tilt the view into 3D where you will see almost all of Downtown Boise and can examine it from any angle. It’s actually quite fascinating, especially if you’ve never seen it. The vast majority of the buildings were created by Visual Genesis, but SearchBoise.com was fortunate enought to be able to have our Boise Depot Tower and Banner Bank Buidling models chosen by Google for inclusion into this layer. I imagine that in the near future we will see a mash-up by Google of Street View, Maps, and Google Earth all with accompanying “Virtual Billboards” (again, as stated by an above poster), and other related Google advertising. Personally, I find all of this very fascinating and am eager to see what comes next.

By: Naznarreb

Naznarreb — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:20:13 +0000

If you have privacy concerns, Google Street View is the least of your concerns. At least a good chunk of the info they collect is free and available for you to check out. Most companies collect your information, keep it private, sell it to other companies for a profit, and force you to agree to let them do it. If you have a credit card, any store loyalty cards (Albertson’s Preferred Card, Fred Meyer Rewards Card, etc) or cookies on your computer from many major websites and companies, then you’ve agreed to just that.

Business track what you buy, where you buy it and when you buy it, then sell that information to other advertisers so they can deliver more effective advertising to you.

The privacy war is pretty much over.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:39:21 +0000

Just relax folks. You can have your house removed from the “street view” with a simple email to Google.

By: Col. Mustard

Col. Mustard — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:12:43 +0000

Pretty sure you can already get much more detailed information about your neighbors’, the mayor’s, and everyone else’s homes from the county assessor’s website. There’s been a much-ado-about-nothing in every city where this has been launched already.

By: bikeboy

bikeboy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:03:40 +0000

How do I ask for a retake? (Get those bushes pruned up nice, and the lawn mowed and fertilized, and Photoshop out the rusty 79 Chevy Monza sitting on cinder blocks in the side yard.)

(-;

By: JT

JT — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:28:47 +0000

It really is no different than someone driving around to check out a house. Real time info is much better anyway.

Also if you are paranoid, you should be more concerned about Microsoft’s Birdseye view. You can get more information in my opinion.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=r86f2v59h5m8&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=20877606&encType=1

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:27:38 +0000

As far as monetizing goes, with Google I imagine they will sell for advertising space on their views and put something like a “virtual billboard” on the side of buildings.