Google Map Mania

Thursday 30th September 2010, Big Brother launched in a street near you. Forget reality television, forget Davina, it has landed, Street View Ireland is here.

Most of you in Ireland probably found out, if not yesterday, then definitely today that a full version of Google Maps Street View Ireland was launched this week.

Those reading elsewhere such as in the US or the UK are probably unimpressed or even interested in this exciting occasion as you have been live on Street View for sometime and will find this blog rather past its sell by date.

However, it was an exciting occasion for me; I had been eagerly awaiting this momentous day since a few months ago when I came home from walking the dog in my small town and had noticed the Google 360 van. Damn it! I thought to myself, no make-up, shabby tracksuit, hair scrunched up in my usual off to walk the dog messy style. I considered jumping into a bush or ducking out of plain sight and then remembered having already used Street View for the UK that Google would use Pixilation on all the faces anyway so no one would know it was me - except me of course!

I cannot even try to describe my disappointment when I eagerly Googled the riverside dog walk yesterday to find......... absolutely nothing but river..... no glimpses of my unkempt dog walking fashion sense, no collie chasing its own shadow, not even a boat cruising on the river or in fact any other sign of human life for that matter.  There were no cars in the car park and not even the usual few stray dogs that roam the pathway every single day were present.  Weirdest thing is that over the last two years that I have walked there, that car park has NEVER been empty.
Moving on from one disappointment to the next, I googled my own house address. Of course it’s not on there - that’s correct my street doesn’t even make it onto the map, just the entrance to my estate - let down number two noted. Final disappointment of the day when I checked another address we had lived in, it too hadn’t been completed and was still a partial building site.

Therefore like hundreds of other intrigued and shall we say, nosey people,  I went Google mapping my mothers house, my mother in laws house, my friends houses, in fact any houses I have set foot in over the last few months. I found myself on an experimental house stalker manic mission yesterday just in the vain hope that I may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of something unusual or out of the ordinary going on in any one of our day to day lives.

It turns out that anyone I appear to know has a pretty normal, average, run of the mill street where absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens - well at least as far as Google Street view in concerned. I was thoroughly dissatisfied.

Never fear though, I did get one result and I nearly wet myself when I realised the last house we lived in was under an incorrect address and we were in fact there on the big day the van came to town. Our proud red Mazda in the driveway, the windows wide open on the top floor, my best friend living next door had her front window open wide for burglars to come in and attempt to steal the giant television that would take an army to shift around the room never mind out the window. I was finally content.
I found my sanity again and realised I must seriously be lacking something in my day to day life when this is the most exciting thing that happened to me yesterday.

Today however I felt massively reassured of my madness when I switched on the radio to hear almost a whole 2 hours of talk show dedicated to Google Maps Ireland going live and the mad investigations people have been up to in the last 24 hours. I knew it! -there is in fact a whole population out there Google stalking addresses while we speak.

It appears that some people are using Google maps to spy on their partners, checking that their beloved other halves were not up to anything. Seriously, what are the odds of being caught on the one day the Google van drove up your street? More often than you would think - Last year Google removed various Street View images in the UK which were the subject of public complaint.

 

A furious housewife called in divorce lawyers after spotting her husband’s car parked outside another woman’s house, she saw the Range Rover while snooping on a female friend’s home. The hubby had claimed he was away on business, but his wife recognised his motor immediately because of its blinged-up hubcap. Private Detectives across the country will be shaking in their boots!

 

Back to Ireland though, It does appear that some interesting views did manage to sneak under the Google radar.

On my search I even found Father Ted Crillys house on the fictional Craggy Island.

Father Teds House

By far the most amusing, are the two lads who drove around a quiet leafy suburb of Dublin chasing the Google Car and mooning at every opportunity. Obviously had a lot of time on their hands! They even made the headlines in the Irish Times today. These lucky boys and their derrières have also been the talk of a number of radio shows today.


Irish Times Report

Mooner 1
Mooners 2

Pranks aside does Google Maps 3D mean the age of the good old fashioned street map is well and truly dead in the water. Having already suffered the momentous blow that the sat navigation generation has precipitated this must surely be the nail in the proverbial coffin. What better way to see exactly where you are going than a 3D walk down the street? You can visit the hotel you want to stay in and see if it really is as per the brochure says? You can see where the museum is and even where to park for ease. 

Consider this though; it must be a double edged sword for some industries, for example look at the housing industry. Websites like Daft, My Home.ie and estate agent sites are an increasingly popular tool in the selling of houses due to the internet generation expanding to almost every household. Now not only can you view all those lovely (often doctored) pictures of inside and outside the house but now you can walk down the street and see if you have a dilapidated run down shack 3 doors down, squatters with burnt out cars or the house that we all know and love that has a garden full of white goods with has more furniture on the outside lawn than inside the house in the front room.

Does it ruin our spirit of adventure? We go to a hotel for a weekend away and we don’t need to explore outside as we have probably already done that on Street View- Does it take away the excitement and anticipation? Only if you let it.

I take it for what it is, another useful invention, quirky and maybe even a little bit addictive for the stalkers amongst us..

At least it is still partially true what they say - you never know what goes on behind closed doors -but watch this space. Big Brother is watching you..... from a white van parked on your street and more closely than you think.