Since its launch in May of 2007, Google Street View has been a source of controversy. The Google feature offers web surfers 360° street-level views around hundreds of cities worldwide. Some of the photos, taken by a car-mounted video camera, have captured some personal moments, like people entering adult book stores, leaving strip clubs, picking their noses, and entering buildings with questionable methods.

Critics claim that posting photos of these things on the internet is a privacy violation. But Google's not breaking any laws. All the photos are taken in public places, and the company has even taken steps to decrease its questionable content, from blurring faces to allowing users to flag photos that may be inappropriate.

The latest Street View gem comes from the new Australian Street View. There, cameras caught a young man passed out drunk on his front lawn. The man claims he'd been drinking all weekend after the death of his best mate. While he knows what he did was dumb, he wasn't pleased when the photo was posted for the whole world to see. Amid the controversy, Google removed the image from its Street View page.

Remember -- just because there's not a crowd around you, that doesn't mean you have privacy when you're out in the open. You may laugh now, but just wait until Google's cameras come to your town...

I'm sure by now most of you have heard of or even played around with the new Google Maps Street View. If you've been reading Gadling for even a few months, you'll know that we gushed about the feature on numerous occasions. (1, 2, 3, 4)

It turns out that Google wasn't the first to develop this technology. (And no, I'm not talking about Amazon.com's A9 or whatever it was called.) Way back in 1907, before conventional road atlases were made, Rand McNally released "Photo Auto-maps" which gave drivers a visual pathway for navigation, much like the Google Maps Street View of today.

Cool! [via]

Low-cost American airline JetBlue announced yesterday they have struck a deal with search giant Google to provide the familiar Google Maps software on the seat-back screens to map the flight's route in real-time. Family and friends will also be able to pull up JetBlue.com and track any flight via the same Google Maps interface.

In celebration of the deal, JetBlue is running a contest called "JetBlue Point of View." All you have to do to enter is take a picture from the window of any JetBlue flight between June 4th and September 3rd and email it to jetbluecommunity@gmail.com. Winners will be selected based on "aesthetic presentation, creativity, design, and audience appeal" on September 10th, and the top ten photos selected will earn their taker two free round-trip tickets to and from anywhere JetBlue flies.

Google Maps Skyview anyone?

Whether or not you think Google's new Streetview application violates privacy issues, there's no denying that -- in only a week -- Streetview immediately became a glorious time-suck for for countless Internet-addicts.

Arguably better than actually leaving your house (think: no gas, no smog, no getting lost, no road rage), Streetview offers people the chance to see parts of the US they might not otherwise see. Granted, most Streetviewers are likely looking for naked women, amusing photo-gaffes, or sketchy activity, but who are we to dig in our heels before progress?

In that spirit, therefore, here are the 10 best sites for armchair travelers to get their Streetview fix.

We promise not to turn this into the Google Streetview blog, but this morning I learned about Streetviewr, which I thought was pretty cool. Well...if you think wasting, like, 30 minutes clicking on cryptic captions to see what kinds of images they reveal is "cool."

In any case, Streetviewr -- similar to Google Sightseeing, which highlights interesting locations across the globe using Google Earth -- is a fun link dump for many of the odd images the Google Van captured as it photographed the US. I can't wait to start hearing stories about how the Google Van documented something illegal or immoral. For example, I can already see the headline: "Girlfriend Catches Boyfriend Cheating on Her Via Google Street View."

I wish I knew when the Google Van was going to be passing my house. I'd hang up a sign that says "Read Gadling!", so it would be forever immortalized -- at least, until the next time it drove by.

More on Google Streetview:
* Google Streetview Round-up
* Streetviewr is a Fun Time Wastr
* Is Google Streetview a Web 2.0 Peeping Tom?
* The Google Streetview Vehicle Revealed
* Google Streetview Finds One Fugly Buick and More
* Google Streetview Car: Take a Look at The Vehicle That's looking At You

A reader sent in a running list of odd findings on the new Google Maps Street View we reported on yesterday. This is similar to the website, Google Sightseeing, which highlights interesting locations across the globe using Google Earth.

Oddities include headless people, camera glitches, and the entire Google crew standing outside the Googleplex as the panoramic van drives by (above).

Found any other unique views with Google Maps Street View? Send them our way.

(Thanks, Fred!)

More on Google Streetview:
* Google Streetview Round-up
* Streetviewr is a Fun Time Wastr
* Is Google Streetview a Web 2.0 Peeping Tom?
* The Google Streetview Vehicle Revealed
* Google Streetview Finds One Fugly Buick and More
* Google Streetview Car: Take a Look at The Vehicle That's looking At You

My favorite mapping application, Google Maps, has just added a new killer feature: Street View.

In supported areas (NYC for instance), a new button will pop up along side the standard "Traffic, Map, Satellite, and Hybrid" offering a first-person prospective at intersections throughout the city. Once the image pops up, you're then able to drag the view of the camera a full 360 degrees.

The Street View isn't a new idea -- Amazon's A9 Maps were the first to offer this unique option, followed by Microsoft's Windows Live Local. However, like most things, Google takes things a step further, and their version of Street View is much better then both Amazon and Microsoft, if for no other reason than its seamless integration with the best web-based mapping software available. I can't wait until they roll it out into more areas.

Check it out. [via]

More on Google Streetview:
* Google Streetview Round-up
* Streetviewr is a Fun Time Wastr
* Is Google Streetview a Web 2.0 Peeping Tom?
* The Google Streetview Vehicle Revealed
* Google Streetview Finds One Fugly Buick and More
* Google Streetview Car: Take a Look at The Vehicle That's looking At You