WOW: Google has added live traffic updates to its maps

[charlie]

http://consumerist.com/5346170/google-aims-to-answer-the-question-but-if-i-get-off-the-highway-wont-it-just-be-worse

I just looked at a main thoroughfare nearby and saw an odd icon at an intersection. Clicking it raised one of their caption balloons, which noted an accident had occurred at 1:58am and police were on the scene. It also contained an "end of situation" entry, which projected the intersection would be clear by 6:02am. Pretty spiff.

[Heidi]

1. Lotsa cool things about Google Maps, but there are some valid privacy concerns about

the street views. :hi:

Google to examine Swiss concerns about Street View

August 26, 2009, 12:59pm

GENEVA, August 25, 2009 (AFP) - Google has agreed to examine concerns about privacy on the new "Street View" facility on its online map of Switzerland, the Swiss data protection watchdog said on Tuesday.

Federal data protection and transparency officer Hanspeter Thuer said after meetings with representatives of the US Internet giant that they would report back within a week on "if and how the product can be improved swiftly."

Thuer's office said in a statement that he was "expecting concrete proposals."

The Street View facility allows users to get a ground level panoramic view of some locations on Google Maps, based on still photographs taken by specially-equipped vehicles.

Thuer complained last week that some faces or vehicle registration plates in Switzerland had not been wiped out or were insufficiently blurred, allowing people to be identified.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/217692/google-examine-swiss-concerns-about-street-view">Read more

[charlie]

4. ALL of it is worrying

The inexorable creep of surveillance society doesn't seem to be slowing a bit. Google wears a benevolent face, but it's at the forefront of those who would catalog and datamine our every move.

Still, Google's ability to pull useful marvels out of its hat way ahead of others is impressive.

[rucky]

7. It's nothing people can't drive down the street and see for themselves.

You can't claim privacy in a public space.

[Liberal In Texas]

8. I agree. And it's one point in time, a photo from months ago. It's not like it's a "live"

broadcast of the front of your house. The county taxing district also has pictures of all buildings and houses up on it's site. I suppose this could be called an "invasion of privacy"?

I have to go to many different locations for my work and I use street view to figure out where I'm going and what I'm looking for; even where to park. It save a lot of time and gas.

[Heidi]

9. Did you even read the linked artcle?

I'm guessing not since you apparently have no appreciation for the fact that other nations'/cultures' notions of privacy may not the same as Americans' notions of privacy or understanding that one US-based firm's interests do not automatically negate other nations' claims or concerns.

[rucky]

11. You guessed wrong.

I read it. I have no appreciation for other notions of privacy in public spaces. It's not a cultural thing. It's spatial.

[ret5hd]

2. The driver was probably googling while driving.

[liberal N proud]

3. Live traffic updates on the web are great

But shouldn't we concentrate on driving and not googgling?

[charlie]

5. Absolutely

But, it's still invaluable when you're headed out the door, though. The street I looked up was one my wife uses every morning. If the accident scene was still in progress, she could take another route and be spared the 20-30 minute delay.

I'm one of the biggest bellyachers about cellphones on the road. Neither of us drives with a phone turned on.

[NashVegas]

6. Ultimately, These Little Diversions Add Little to Nothing, To Our Lives

While they strip us of patience, spontaneity, and skills.

But it's soooooo coooooollll.

[anigbrowl]

10. We get it already, you hate the internets and keep coming back here to say so

I find it pretty amusing that you use the internet to find an outlet for your anti-technology ramblings - then again this incongruity seems to be widespread among technophobes. I'm sure a few hundred years back you would have been circulating pamphlets denouncing the impact of the printing press.