Google Street View Goes Live in Germany, Blurred Houses and All

After much controversy, setbacks and negotiations, Google Street View is going live in Germany. It's already available in the small town of Oberstaufen and it will go live everywhere else gradually.

It will probably take longer than Google would have wanted, though, since, besides blurring faces and number plates, Google also has to blur a couple of hundred of thousand houses.

Google hasn't made any official announcement yet, but the Street View imagery is live for everyone to see. Of course, now that Street View is available, the first thing that most people will want to see is how those blurred houses look like.

Depending in which part of town you're starting in, it may take a couple of minutes of walking around before spotting a house that has been removed from Street View at the request of its owner.

Once you do stumble upon one, it's pretty hard to miss it, these houses really stand out. In fact, the blurred houses are probably going to attract more attention to them than if they were just like any other house around.

Still, no one will ever know what color drapes they have. That said, maybe the ones that have asked for their homes to be removed from Street View are on to something.

The cameras on the Street View cars are mounted pretty high. This makes sense in large cities since the photos shouldn't be blocked by traffic or other obstacles.

In smaller towns, like the very one Google chose to launch Street View in Germany, which have low houses and small streets, the cameras easily go over fences and even peek straight into people's homes.

This is only possible if the house in question is right by the street and the windows are positioned at just the right height. Even so, the glare on the windows will prevent anyone from seeing inside a house.

Still, Google captured images from all over Germany and it's hard to believe that not one house had a window opened. It happens every time Street View is launched in a new country or city and it's going to happen in Germany as well, funny, weird or just plain inappropriate images are going to pop up. There will probably be no dead bodies though.