Spain is the second European country in which Google unveils its Street View system that allows virtual walks down the streets of cities from your computer. Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla are the first Spanish towns that join the service within Google Maps.
For months, the urban nucleus of these cities has been photographed by a few cars equipped with special cameras to capture images which allow 360 degree views and at the same time are located geographically in the street.
Google says it has captured “tens of millions of images,” without giving further details on the investment or the time taken to incorporate the first four Spanish cities for it’s Street View program. The result is quite astonishing, and offers new uses of the street views for both the users and for businesses.
“You can afford to make digital tourism or find out how the new neighborhood where we are going to move to is or know what it looks like down the street from a restaurant where you stayed. Applications are many and we hope that users will find many more.” said Clara Rivera, who is responsible for Google Maps, who also explained how many companies are already using Street View for their business such as real estate like the spanish websites Fotocasa and Idealist, or the Lanetro entertainment portal, which will offer gastronomic routes based on this system.
Google provides free tools to incorporate this application into other sites that want to exploit the system of being able to view street images in 360 degrees.
To access Street View, you just have to click on the appropriate tab within Google Maps and get the images of streets on hand. The user is represented by a little icon that can move from one place to another simply by dragging their mouse within the map.
Google Earth also integrates this option so you can go from a view from space to being in the center of a city.
However, faces and license plates are blurred.
Despite the striking aspect of this application, the vision of being able to walk the streets of cities from your computer has also generated a large amount of controversy. Many citizens of San Francisco and Las Vegas, the first cities that were photographed with this system, complained because they appeared in these images, or because they could identify their cars and homes.
Google has found an answer to this controversy with a new technology that is capable of automatically blurring all the faces and license plates of cars that appear on its service. “Anyone who does not want to appear in these images has a tool for requesting their removal and the image will be removed as soon as possible,” said Fernando Delgado, an engineer with Google.
In any case, keep in mind that Google has consulted with local organizations and institutions on issues of privacy to give maximum respect for the privacy rights of citizens. Googles also assures about their search function that the images are not in real time and that their intention was to shoot only open spaces and streets, and not to record individuals and their activities.
Google is going slowly incorporating new cities in its service, and will also seek to enter the pedestrian streets that are difficult to access, such as the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, which due to technical difficulties has not yet been included.
