I've just been onto google maps and have seen my house and street as if I was standing in front of it :-)  Fantastic!!! I can even see my poodle ornament outside the front door!

Can you see your houses etc?  More importantly can you see yourself or your dogs? It's brilliant, it really is.

Oooh our grass needs cut!! lol I'm in the drive with my hubby as he was doing some diy.

Brilliant lol!!
Oh if only it was live then I could spy on my house.

i tell you what, they are lucky my curtains are closed as you could see right in, im actually quite peeved about it, ive never ever been peeved about cctv or anything like that but this is just a step too far it like you are stood in my garden almost looking in my window!!

No, it hasn't reach my village or even my nearest town yet but I have been able to look at my sisters house in America for months now and she still hasn't put her sons bike away :-)

LOL @ Isabel

Isabel, have you moved the little orange man to your street?  That is how you can see your street as if you are standing on it, otherwise you are just getting an aerial shot.  My house isn't even built in the aerial shot but it's there in all it's glory from the street perspective :-)  It's a new thing that was launched today - I saw the google car with it's camera driving round Aberdeen in the Summer.

We have got no street to view boo hoo

Yes, I know the little orange man, I often ask him to show me places I am going in London for instance, but he does not seem interested in the rurials. 

Aaawww :-(
Yes it appears they have only done the cities and suburbs - my boss's house isn't there (although it is on 192.com which is wierd).

doesnt work on my street

its an appalling idea actually

:-(

krusewalker i agree, i hadnt even known that it was happening, im furious. you can see right in some of my neighbours houses

Cool :)

> its an appalling idea actually

I can see the benefit on commercial streets, I have used it to check out hotels and shops and stuff to make it easier when I arrive to spot them but not so sure of the benefit in the residential areas.  House hunting perhaps, to suss out the general look of an area.

If anyone is concerned about anything on the pictures then please click on the little bit in the corner which asks if you would like to report a concern.

Personally I think it is fab :-)

Isabel, totally agree!

> i hadnt even known that it was happening, im furious. you can see right in some of my neighbours houses

Google have said they will sort any issues people may have such as identifiable faces, cars etc, to ensure peoples privacy regarding being caught where they ought not to be I think ;-) but as far as seeing into a house they are only showing what someone walking along the street would see.

Actually, I think the arial view is more revealing in terms of security as it can show areas that are generally screened to the passer by.

but you can magnify isabel as if you are in the garden, and BELIEVE ME should anyone be stood in my garden i would make sure they would not again, im disgusted.

> If anyone is concerned about anything on the pictures then please click on the little bit in the corner which asks if you would like to report a concern.
>
>

where is this?

On the actual picture - I saw a thing in the bottom left corner I'm sure.

yep your right its there, and it does nothing :(

Well, if you are worried that a prospective puppy purchaser might be telling you porkies about the size of his house/garden - you can always have a look now!

I still think it's brillian :-)  And I can't see in any of the neighbours windows because it is light outside and dark inside.  Also as it is not live, and will be out of date very soon, I don't really see that we have anything to be worried about.  I'm sure more people would have a problem with it if it were live, but it's not.  Google have spent a long time making sure these pictures were "safe" - they were up here last summer.

Crespin can use it to plan her visit to the UK :-)

if i reported 'concerns', i would be very busy, as the whole idea should be canned

a man walking down the street does not equate to the world wide web

if you want to check out an area you are thinking of moving to, that is pretty easy already

im glad to say, all bar one of the addresses ive checked, it doesnt work

They have not stood in your garden to take the images so what anyone can see is only the view from the road.

> They have not stood in your garden to take the images so what anyone can see is only the view from the road. <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text"

no isabel but it can be magnified to see more than you usually would be able to like you would be able to on most cameras,

> Well, if you are worried that a prospective puppy purchaser might be telling you porkies about the size of his house/garden

Very true :-) 

> like you would be able to on most cameras

as any passerby could use.

in which case i would make sure it would not happen!!!! i WOULD NOT allow anyone to stand outside my house taking photos.
im quite sure we would not be having this discussion had it been your house isabel that could be seen on the internet where whoever it pleases can look into your personal domain

you could already do that with the existing magnification of google maps 

Google earth has been on line for ages whilst not being able to see (stood in front view) the aerial shots of our property showed clearly our garden and shed ect, but thats been live for about 4 years. They haven't got our street on Google street it looks as if they are just in and around built up areas. But I cetainly could see all the neighbours gardens and car's years ago.
Im not sure if it consitutes an invasion of privacy or not, it might help a burgler get to your shed though! just a thought that had not occured to me before.

> im quite sure we would not be having this discussion had it been your house isabel that could be seen on the internet where whoever it pleases can look into your personal domain

You might be quite sure but I'm not :-)  I don't really have these strong feelings about personal domain.  I don't have net curtains or anything like that.  Anything I don't want people to see I do not have displayed where they would be visible.

so you would be happy isabel with someone with binoculars stood outside your house looking in, as this is what most cameras do

It's happened in the past - in the 1950s when photgraphed postcards were around, a postcard of our road clearly shows my brother's bike, propped up against the gate outside our house!  

Unless you've anything to hide - why worry?    And I've just tried googling family addresses all over the country and have yet to find one available!   But I can see where I was yesterday in London!

i have nothing to hide i dont mind cctv, i think its a great idea to stop crime etc... and even surveys how and when we spens money which is what happens. what i do have issues with is when im in my house i dont expect for someone to be allowed to take a magnified picture of my house (and front room window) i think its a massive invasion of privacy and for no reason at all.

> so you would be happy isabel with someone with binoculars stood outside your house looking in

No, because that would be rather odd behaviour and I would worry about that rather than the fact that they could see what I was watching on the tele.

It's happened in the past - in the 1950s when photgraphed postcards were around, a postcard of our road clearly shows my brother's bike, propped up against the gate outside our house! 

just like the guy walking down the street, that is not a comparable analogy

Google earth has been on line for ages whilst not being able to see (stood in front view) the aerial shots of our property showed clearly our garden and shed ect, but thats been live for about 4 years. They haven't got our street on Google street it looks as if they are just in and around built up areas. But I cetainly could see all the neighbours gardens and car's years ago.

this is true. google mapping technology has already been online for a few years, already enabling surveys of areas for house buying purposes. we dont need the street level map to achieve this

Think I am an idiot but I can't find any street level views, I am looking at Google Maps where do you find the shots you are talking of, thanks.

I zoomed in to see what I could see inside my house as we have really big living room windows and I can see nothing bar the ornaments on my wondow sill which is probably less than you would see walking up the street.

Oh I'm mortified...my 'street view' clearly shows my car at very close quarters (with the number plate obliterated) although I have no problem with that.  What concerns me more is that our wheelie bin is out by the gatepost (obviously taken before the collection that day or the bin would have been well out of shot...and in another postcode judging by their usual standards) and you can clearly see how overgrown the flowerbeds are along the side of the driveway.  Oh, the shame :-o

If only that would give people a weeks notice :-)

>If only that would give people a weeks notice :-)

Who do I complain to? :-D

How do you get the street scene? I can't work it out.

mahonc

> i WOULD NOT allow anyone to stand outside my house taking photos.
>

Well you'd be in a total state if you lived in my house, our house is photographed quite a lot and from time to time we have calls from friends and family to tell us they have seen our house on TV. My sister even called to say she liked the new colour of our front door, she's seen it on the BBC news.

You get the option of 'street view' once you get the street map up. It doesn't work with all addresses, I've just tried my parents house and there isn't the 'street view' option there.

> Who do I complain to?

The orange man.