Google Street View in Germany

July 15, 2008

I was driving home from work today when I saw the google street view camera car, opened my window and waved. So looks like I will be on the street view when you look for Bockenheimer Warte. :-)

Streetview is coming to 3 German cities: Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin, and this has gotten some weird press. Germans are very privacy-sensitive, more so than other nationalities, anyway. But some of the arguments against Street View, while possible, or even true, seem petty, paranoid and irrelevant. Basically, it seems like an exercise in neo-luddite nay-saying in the name of the people.

For example, sure thieves can stake out neighborhoods and look for nice cars to steal, but you would still have to know where to look, and you would still need to go there to stake it out. Or the fact that some people don’t like other people looking at their house. Hello? What about all those people walking by your house? Wanna blind-fold them? And people who don’t like being in the pictures (even though their faces are blurred out)? Going by this standard, you couldnt send a TV camera crew to film anything in the city, either. Those arguments seem contrived and designed to make people paranoid.

In a Tagesschau Poll, people here seem pretty muchdivided on the issue and the press is trying to make it look a bit negative.

I for one think street view rocks and I am happy it is coming to my town.

Entry Filed under: companies, future, news, people, privacy, technology, tool. Tags: , , , , .

11 Comments Add your own

  • 1. dinu  |  July 17, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    thats cool :P post a screenshot if this happens :D

  • 2. Martin  |  August 16, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    The Street View Car also was seen by me in Mannheim on 14.08.2008

  • 3. Jens  |  August 19, 2008 at 8:45 am

    I have seen this car in Mannheim, too on 18.08.2008

  • 4. Printoutlet  |  September 25, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    Pictures of Google Street View car spotted in Europe on Flickr:
    http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=google+street+view+car+in+Europe&m=text

  • 5. smokeonit  |  October 26, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    google SV sichtungen in D:

    flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/googlestreetviewcar/

    Germany:
    Berlin (pool)
    Bochum (pool)
    Bodensee/Lake Constance Region (Südliches/Southern Württemberg, Landstrasse/Rural Highway)
    Bonn
    Bremen
    Köln/Cologne (pool)
    Darmstadt
    Dortmund (pool)
    Duisburg (pool)
    Essen
    Frankfurt
    Gütersloh (pool)
    Hamburg (pool)
    Heidelberg
    Hilden (pool) (near Düsseldorf)
    Karlsruhe (pool)
    Leipzig (pool)
    Ludwigshafen
    Mannheim (pool)
    München/Munich (pool)
    Nürnberg/Nuremberg (pool)
    Potsdam
    Stuttgart (pool)
    Wiesbaden
    Worms

  • 6. edgars  |  December 10, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    Hello, good people, we live in Latvia and we are at a very difficult situation. I lost a job, the wife became an invalid and loss which live.waif receive 70 euros, 100 euros,at moont.week our age can not find my 59 years, would be willing to work foreign please some material good people. when we had the money my donation Children’s Fund, but now we are requesting a passport.Latvia to my bank SEB Bank SWIFT code UNLALV2X Edgars Freibergs personal code 201249-11649 account LV90UNLA0050012621162 big thank you to the air and happy Christmas, the good people.

  • 7. anonym  |  March 8, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    cool; I’m waiting for that.

  • 8. Prince of Nigeria  |  March 27, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    Hello Edgars! I would be more than happy to donate 1 billion dollars to your bank account. All you have to do is send me 20 dollars and then I will send you one billion dollars. It is because I have so much money it is hard for me to put it anywhere. There will also be a processing scam- I mean FEE of $100. So at your earliest convenience please send your money and possibly a kidney or two to my address at the Nigera Scams Association. PO Box thisisnotascam

    Thank you.

  • 9. Evan  |  April 14, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    I saw the Street View car out front of my inlaws house in Oldau. Not too far from Celle, Lower Saxony! Looking forward to the pics. Does anyone know when they will be posted on Google maps???

  • 10. Rodolfo E Ignacio Jr  |  April 22, 2009 at 11:04 am

    I saw right now to see the places in Germany! I want to saw the streets in Poland, and other cities across Europe.

  • 11. swillard8  |  July 1, 2009 at 7:47 am

    i hope they enable it soon :D i want to see berlin <3

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