14 DAY TRIAL // Google rolled out some time ago the Street View function of Google Maps, a special feature that created quite a buzz around the Mountain View company and its privacy guidelines concerning the users. Although Google didn't improve its technology only a few times to meet the privacy demands, Street View was updated today with new imagery for several US cities including San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando. From now on, you are able to view street-level panoramas from these cities using the Street View button included in Google Maps.
"Since the launch of Street View we've been working hard on extending the service to more cities. We're excited to announce that Street View is now available in San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando. Like the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego features high-resolution imagery," Stephen Chau, Product Manager, Google Maps, wrote today on the official blog of the service.
As you might have heard, the parent company Google was involved into an interesting dispute concerning the recently-introduced Street View function. Just after its release, some US residents accused the search giant of violating their privacy because Street View showed way too many pictures, some of them being captured even from their houses. Google defended itself by mentioning this special feature shows nothing more than what it's discoverable from the street so it doesn't violate any privacy.
What's most interesting is that Street View shows high-resolution photos from several US cities that obviously captured the residents even if they didn't agree. Some of them expressed their frustration and wanted to be removed from Google Maps but the procedure was quite difficult and complicated. For example, the Mountain View company demanded a copy of an ID and private details about the user in order to identify and remove him from the mapping tool.