Google was forced to remove hundreds of pictures from its street view mapping service within hours of its launch facing complaints from people who said that the system breached their privacy.
The street view gives 360-degree views of 25 cities and towns allowing users to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. The initial laumch hit hundreds of thousands of visitors when it began on thursday; but google faced a deluge of complaints from homeowners and members of the public shown by its cameras, who demanded that photographs be taken down.
Blogger (including me!!) and internet sites posted embarrasing scenes captured by the service. Among the pictures removed were a man vomiting on a pavement, one leaving a sex shop and another entering a sex shop; another guy being arrested. These images were blacked out later with the message: "This image is no longer available". However, street view users were able to travel a few meters down the road and turn the camera back to see the same people from a different angle.
Google spent more than a year coveing 22,000 miles to collect images with car-mounted cameras (one such car can be seen in the photo a the top of this article). Some people complained that viewers could zoom into the open windows of their homes which is a sole matter of privacy intrusion.
The company promised to remove any pictures to which individuals objected. "We put tools in place to allow people to remove images quickly".
For more funny Street view images, goto www.telegraph.co.uk.
