Once upon a time, Google decided drive around different cities with a 360 degree video camera propped on top of their van to take images of the area. When they were done, they put all the images together to make a 360 degree map and Google Street View was launched on October 7th 2009.

On October 8th 2009, I was sitting in Comm. Tech with a few of my buds. My friend, (we'll call her S for now), looked over and saw one of my fellow classmates playing with the new Google application called Google Street View. S looked up her own personal address. To her surprise she saw her own mom right in front of the computer screen! Amazed, I looked up my own address. Extremely relieved, I was glad I could only see the front side of my house. When I looked over to my neighbour's house, I could see him walking out of his house getting ready to go to work! We all laughed about it and agreed it was the pure stalker tool.

In my opinion, I think it's a great thing that technology has become such a huge impact in our lives. Years ago, the first camera was nothing but a box of wood. Now, camera's can have a 360 degree angle. Such a simple application, it can seem like you're traveling in time to the same exact place. But, the downside is this new Google Street View can be invading people's privacy. We can't do anything now without having to think twice that camera's are all around us and can videotape what we're doing. When I was looking at the street view of my address, I could clearly tell Google did not do a good job with blurring out faces and license plates. I can see my neighbour's license plate, his face, and 3 people's faces who just got out of their car. Sure, this device can be very simple to use, but what if someone were to use it for inappropriate reasons. For example, to stalk people. They can easily find out how you look like, where you live, and may just come up to your door right this moment!

The original Google Earth idea was already very advanced in technology. You could search up a street and see buildings and cars. By elaborating, Google Street View was designed. With it, you can not only see buildings and cars, but you can see inside windows, and alleyways, and even real people! So in the end, I think this new Google Street View application was not a good idea. It invades people's privacy and IT'S JUST PLAIN CREEPY!