Google Earth to Get Street View?

A new rumor brings Google Earth and the long commented Google Maps function, Street View, in the spotlights: the Mountain View company plans to integrate Street View into the downloadable map application which means users will be able to enjoy street-level panoramas straight from their desktop. The speculation was rolled out by Rafe Needleman of Webware, who wrote that "Google Earth app will get the Street View feature, currently available only in the browser-based Google Maps service, within a few weeks. What's not clear is whether this refers to general release or internal testing."

Street View was rolled out on May 25, 2007 and brought quite a new perspective over the imagery provided by Google Maps because it allowed people to view high-resolution photos straight from the street. However, this special function caused a lot of controversy around it because numerous users appearing in the photos published by Google complained that the Mountain View company violated their privacy and requested the removal of the photos.

Now, let's see what such a feature would mean for Google Earth users. First of all, this would be quite useful because consumers who would like to view street panoramas can do it without leaving their desktop or having to open a browser window.

However, this report might be a fake and I seriously doubt that Google will implement Street View in Google Earth anytime soon. The article was published on March 31, which eliminates the possibility of an April Fool's Day joke, so we can't know for sure if it's real or not.

Until we see Google Maps Street View in the downloadable application, you can enjoy the great features Google Earth provides by downloading and installing the program using the following link.