Google Street View Comes to Southern New Hampshire

By now I’m sure you’ve heard of Google Maps. Like many people, you’ve probably already used it (or a similar mapping service) to find directions to a new restaurant, store or other family destination. But now Southern New Hampshire families have another reason to use it: Google has mapped the Manchester and Nashua areas with their “Street View” feature.

What’s Street View?

The Street View feature puts you “in” the map. You can move up and down streets and see things as if you were driving down the street in real life. Just search for an address on Google Maps as normal. If the address is in a Street View area you’ll see a “Street View” button. Click this and then click the little person on the map to start your virtual trip. You can click the photo to move up and down the street as well as pan around 360 the images

So What Good is It?

Once you get past the “golly gee” factor, you may start thinking of ways to use this. Here are a few I came up with while playing with it:

1. “See” a New Destination Before You Actually Go There
   Visit local destinations from your computer and find landmarks to make it easier to find them when you’re surrounded by the distractions of driving.
2. House Hunting
   It’s a buyer’s market right now. Check out the neighborhood around potential houses before you visit the house.
3. Remember Summer
   The Street View images currently being used were taken this past summer (the Telegraph article linked below pinpoints some of the Nashua photos to August 2). Ok, this may be another “golly gee,” but on a snowy day like today, it’s just nice to see images of New Hampshire in the summer. So even though it’s snowing right now, you can “stroll” around without bundling up.

What About Privacy Issues?

Ok this is where things get interesting. To create Street View, Google drove around taking pictures of local streets, and the property all around them. In doing this, did they capture anything that couldn’t be seen by any one else driving or walking on those same streets? It’s unlikely. Of course, if you or your family were visible from your street when it was mapped, you’re part of the site for everyone to see. And that’s where things could get interesting. There are already sites that catalog interesting Street View images, for example streetviewr. So what if Google saw something you’d rather they hadn’t? No problem: Google provides a link to report inappropriate images on the “Street View Help” link. But is that enough?

Let us know what you think: Is Street View a great feature or an invasion of privacy?

February 17 Nashua Telegraph Article
Feburary 14 Union Leader Article

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