Franklin EXPOSED: GoogleMaps Street View feature peeks into your garage

 

As if GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth weren't mind-bending enough already (see your house from space! Locate the pyramids in Egypt and see just how close the Sphinx is to them!), Google has been adding a 360-degree, you-are-there Street View feature to GoogleMaps on a city by city basis.

Street View basically adds the option to put yourself right on the street as if you're standing in the location you've Googled. I used this on a recent trip to Hollywood when I Googlemapped the hotel my client had recommended and was able to "walk" the neighborhood in advance to get the lay of the land. (See above - two blocks from the Scientology Celebrity Center!)

It adds an extra dimension to getting your bearings, to be sure.

But, as handy as it is to get the lay of the land by looking at street-level physical landmarks in urban/commercial environments like LA, Manhattan, Portland, etc., things get a little odd when the funny-looking Google car comes to the suburbs, which must have happened this past summer in Franklin. Now you're basically looking at mile after mile of people's houses and often-open garages (look - he's got a new Toro riding lawn mower).

Weird. Go GoogleMap your house. The Street View picture for my house shows the right cul-de-sac, but the wrong house; with a little scrolling you can sit right in your own virtual driveway. I imagine if you crawled through block after block of Franklin you'll  find some odd scenes caught by the randomness of the Google car's appearance. My short forays thus far reveal virtual ghost town in Franklin - though I did find this roller blader waiting to cross Drexel:

LINK: Strange scenes captured on Street View.

GoogleMaps project manager speaks about Street Views feature on Freakonomics blog.

Frankly, the clip below seems only slightly exaggerated:

Comments

[MW]

A Pennsylvania coupled has sued Google, alleging that Google trespassed upon their property, took photographs of their property and then made them available online as part of the Street View function of Google Maps. More details and legal analysis:

http://www.lawofgoogle.com/2008/04/mr-mrs-boring-s.html