<![CDATA[Valleywag: Google Maps]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/valleywag.com.png <![CDATA[Valleywag: Google Maps]]> http://valleywag.com/tag/google maps http://valleywag.com/tag/google maps <![CDATA[ Google sends tourists looking for wrong subway line ]]> As a stunt, Google has wrapped subway trains in New York City with ads for Google Maps. Inside, ads give specific directions to tourist landmarks like Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, they misplace Grand Central Terminal by several blocks, directing people to subway lines which do not run through the station. A mistake we can see someone sitting in a cube in Mountain View making — but doesn't Google have a large New York office full of employees who might have been called on to vet the ads in their 20 percent time?

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Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:40:00 PST Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5087694&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Microsoft's Facebook millions paid back with Google election map ]]> What does $240 million get you these days? That's what Microsoft invested in Facebook, but the software giant hasn't gotten much love in return. On election night, whose online maps did Facebook use? Google's.

Which goes to show you that money can't buy you love. Literally — I suspect that's what motivated this slap in the face, inadvertent or not, to Facebook's investor. Dave Morin, Facebook's senior platform egotist, is dating Google Maps marketer Brittany Bohnet, who's been working on the search engine's voting-data projects.

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Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:40:00 PST Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5076669&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Maps to wantrepreneurs: get lost ]]> When Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted funding from Sequoia Capital in 1999, they had no problem finding its Sand Hill Road offices. A decade later, Google Maps doesn't seem to know where 3000 Sand Hill Road is, the swanky-office-park Mecca of venture capital firms, including Sequoia, which funded Cisco, Apple, and Yahoo, in addition to Google. Typing in Sequoia's address takes you to a highway surrounded by brown fields. The real location of the Sand Hill conclave is actually a few minutes northeast, surrounded by a lush golf course watered every day with the sweat and tears of entrepreneurs. So what?

Okay, okay — there's an error on the Internet! But far more boring than thinking this is a glitch in Google's database is making up a conspiracy theory that this has something to do with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who maneuvered to get Sequoia partner Michael Moritz off Google's board last year.

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Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:40:00 PDT Alaska Miller http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5067432&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ LinkedIn shuttle throws employees' privacy under the bus ]]> A correction on our previous post about LinkedIn's financial woes: Contrary to our tipster's assertions, plenty of LinkedIn employees use the company-provided shuttle bus from San Francisco to Mountain View. The bus even has its own Twitter account. That account is private — but it links to a public, annotated route map on Google Maps. CEO Dan Nye and marketing VP Patrick Crane, among others, have their home addresses listed. Other employees have left notes, in plain view, about their commuting preferences. "Your privacy is our top concern," LinkedIn's privacy policy states. But if the company is so slapdash about guarding its own employees, can it really be trusted to protect users? Here's an embedded version of the map:


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Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:00:00 PDT Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5057843&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Uppity German town vows to block Google Street View ]]> "You can see everything in those photos! That is opening house and home to criminals!" says Molfsee town councilman Reinhold Harwart, who plans to block Google Street View trucks by demanding they get local street vendor permits, then denying the permits. Peter Schaar, Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection (can we get one of those?) told the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that putting photos of people's houses on the Internet "will not do." Google spokeswoman Kay Oberbeck retorted in yet another German newspaper, "We don't need [no stinking] permits." (Photo by DDP)

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Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:40:00 PDT Paul Boutin http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5057016&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View steers clear of Obama's neighborhood ]]> Google has kept its camera-mounted Priuses away from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's Chicago house, a tipster notes — even the entire neighborhood. Start your vast left-wing conspiracy theories! Did Obama pull strings with Google to maintain his family's privacy?

Come on: Images of Obama's house are all over the Web. There are aerial views of the home on Google and Microsoft's online maps, as well as shots uploaded to Flickr.

The small wealthy community or North Oaks, Minnesota was able to block Google's Street View cars from entering their neighborhood, but that's probably not what happened in Obama's. Despite what you've heard Hyde Park, Obama's academic enclave and home of the University of Chicago isn't quite entirely a South Chicago colony for the elite. At least, not according to the conservative Weekly Standard:

It is the most racially integrated neighborhood in the nation's most racially segregated city. On three sides it is closed in by some of the most hellish slums in the country, miles of littered streets, acres of abandoned lots, block after block of shuttered storefronts and empty apartment buildings left over from the 19th century.

Shots of Obama's house:

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Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:20:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5045494&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ New evidence suggests Tumblr users exist outside of Brooklyn ]]> David Karp's Tumblr, the New York-based blogging startup, rolled out a site redesign yesterday. One of the new features is a Google Map showing where Tumblr users are located. We weren't surprised to see the highest Tumblr densities are in Brooklyn and San Francisco — "sisters in idiosyncracy" dubbed Sanfrooklyn by the New York Times. We were shocked, however, to learn that there are actual Tumblr users in the rest of America — like say Kalamazoo, Michigan, for example. The cartographic evidence:

Tumblr users in Kalamazoo, Michigan:

More in Des Moines, Iowa:

There's one in Muncie, Indiana!

Tumblr users exist where they used to make Goodyear tires in Akron, Ohio:

In East Sioux Falls, South Dakota, they must call the Tumblr-using Sioux Falls kids crybaby emos:

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Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:20:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5042461&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ How Street View will harsh on your Humboldt buzz ]]> Google's Street View drivers on contract have photographed more than just estates in Sonoma's wine country. They've also snapped shots of stretches of private roads in Humboldt County — nearly a quarter of a mile past "no trespassing" signs, according to one complainant. That particular area of California long ago cut down the profitably harvestable timber and has turned to cannabis cultivation. It provides the state, and the nation, with some of the most carefully bioengineered marijuana strains known to humanity.

You can thank local botanists who fly under the radar of law enforcement. Grow operations are packed tightly into indoor and outdoor spaces, which Google's all-seeing eye-level cameras could easily betray. So if your dealer's supplier goes down thanks to a Street View intrusion — lawful or otherwise — which brand ought to feel the wrath of your pointlessly paranoid post-analysis?

(Photo by Miss Gong & The Flickers)

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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:00:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041200&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google's camera trucks roll through 100 private drives in wine country ]]> Ploddingly methodical reporters at the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa pored over Google Maps and found the company's camera-equipped trucks photographed more than 100 private roads in Sonoma County, snapping photos of "Private Road" and "No Trespassing" signs as they barged on past, shooting through secluded living-room windows hundreds of feet beyond property barriers.

My favorite shot is the guard dog on private Simone Road in Sonoma. Google spokesliar Larry Yu swore up and down that Google trains its drivers not to do this, they give them specific routes to follow, they hire local drivers who know the area, blah blah blah —- all of which Yu retracted after a reporter talked to a driver who refuted the whole story.

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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:00:00 PDT Paul Boutin http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041375&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Online maps of Georgia handy for guerrilla warfare ]]> Google Maps can't always remember where in the world war-torn Georgia is, but the Googlers behind it did not in fact hide road maps of the country — they were never there to begin with, according to product manager Dave Barth. However, satellite imagery from the region is, which might have proved useful to South Ossetian and Georgian troops. (Russia, which is supporting South Ossetia's independence, has its own network of spy satellites.)

Both satellite photos and topography would be just the thing for planning, say, an armored column advance or in identifying industrial and civilian targets for sabotage and terror, respectively. While the photos aren't current enough to track enemy movements, the detail at the lowest scale is certainly good enough for a sniper to find a roost near Josef Stalin's birthplace for instance. And if anyone needed road maps, then they could have just used Microsoft's more Caucasus-complete Live Maps. Just imagine what separatist guerrillas could have done with Street View!

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Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:20:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5036759&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View catches house on fire ]]> Google Street View's picture of a burning house on Eagle Point Drive in Sherwood, Arkansas, went viral over the weekend, prompting the solicitous censors of Mountain View to remove a 360-degree chunk of imagery from Google Maps. Google can erase the picture, but it can't erase this fact: The Google Street View car making the rounds in the neighborhood that day kept driving past the burning home, taking its assigned pictures. All of these images, like the one above, remain visible in Google Maps.

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Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:20:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5035540&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google News informs us that the Russians are invading the South ]]> Did you know that Russian troops are thrusting into the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia? That's what readers will learn from a Google Maps graphic accompanying a news story about Russian incursions into Georgia — the nation-state in the Caucasus, not the Caucasian-pride-ridden state in the southern United States. Google's mixup will not help Yahoo Answers user Jessica B., who presciently asked, "i herd on the news that rusia has invaded but i dont see them no where wats going on." A screenshot of Google's erroneous invasion map:

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Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:00:00 PDT Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5034988&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Privacy advocates nearly publish guide to carjacking Google executive ]]> In a response to Google's recent assertion that "complete privacy does not exist," the National Legal and Policy Center released a step-by-step guide [PDF] to finding an unnamed "senior executive" from the company. While it doesn't reveal the home address, it does show a number of intersections where one might lie in wait to assault or kidnap said executive. Using Google Search, Maps and Street View, naturally.

The press release also quotes Google's Internet evangelist Vint Cerf declaring, "there isn't any privacy, get over it," though from the context of the cited article, it seems he was jokingly parroting former Sun Microsystems CEO Scot McNealy from 1999.Any commenters care to name the executive who lives in the walled compound pictured here? If you're worried Eric Schmidt will blackball you, feel free to send us a tip instead. Update: Of course, it's Larry Page's house (which Valleywag had earlier revealed). And the NLPC didn't do a great job of obfuscating the address — opening the PDF in Illustrator or Acrobat Pro makes it easy to remove the redactions.

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Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:00:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5031796&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google scoffs at notion that Street View is a Peeping Tom ]]> "Complete privacy does not exist," says Google. This statement came in response to a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania couple that alleged a contractor for the search engine trespassed on private property to snap pictures of their home. Google's lawyers point out the plaintiffs could have used the company's tools to flag the photo, and that "similar photos of their home were already publicly available on the Internet," before sneering, "These ironies aside, Plaintiff's claims have no merit."

If you think you can run away to a desert and become a hermit in order to avoid the all-seeing eye of Google, think again — "Today's satellite-image technology means that even in today's desert, complete privacy does not exist." Google should know, since they helpfully provide the public with those very satellite images, like this peek into famed hermit camp Slab City, CA. Meanwhile, across the pond, U.K. residents can expect the same level of intrusion whether they like it or not.

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Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:20:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5031603&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ skwash ]]> In a post about Google's agricultural-mapping expeditions, commenter skwash suggests that Google's snapping shots of business-free rural roads so it can create its own geographical database, shutting out map providers TeleAtlas and Nokia's Navteq:

You have to consider the fact that Google has to pay to license all of their street data from NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas. By essentially photographing the view from the street, Google has access to nearly everything they need to re-create the data set. Street names, mileposts, exit numbers, etc can all be pulled from the images. Combine this with their recently announced Map Maker and Google has their own data set with accuracy as good or better than their current sources, and they don't have to pay ridiculous licensing fees. This doesn't even account for the fact that Google is striking deals with local government to publish geo data as well, or that Google is using Street View cars to collect 3D data on buildings.)

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Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:40:00 PDT Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5031172&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View turning into Google Farm View ]]> If you moved out to the country for a little privacy, you may need to rethink your plans. Google's Street View camera-cars have roved far into the rural reaches of Sonoma County, more than an hour north of San Francisco. It's not clear what commercial purpose the photographs serve. Google's photographs of streetscapes in cities have a plausible commercial motive, showing storefronts to help searchers find local stores, a lucrative advertising market. But showing mile after mile of farmland? WIth this expansion of Street View, Google manages to seem at once creepy and wasteful. (Screenshot via Search Engine Land)

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Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:20:00 PDT Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5029923&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Downtown San Francisco no longer capable of supporting three Starbucks per intersection ]]> You are not your coffeeNext year's Macworld may be the last chance to make a shamefaced Starbucks run to the mall-kiosk latte dispenser in the Metreon. Why did the Seattle coffee monoculturist give six months' notice of that coffee-bar's closure, and 599 others? Why, to retrain loyalists on other locations within footsteps. We already know that you drink only at establishments where the coffee pickers are unionized, graduate-degreed, and constantly hugged. And so do we. But here's our map of the remaining South of Market Starbucks — and all the Blue Bottle locations — anyway. Only to show to your sleep-addled board members when they visit for a meeting.


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(Photo by Davity Dave)

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Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:20:00 PDT Melissa Gira Grant http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5026850&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ 5 sights the U.S. government won't let Google show you ]]> So much for indexing all the world's information: There are at least 51 places you can't see on Google Maps. One of them is the entire country of Bahrain. Allegedly, the Bahrain's Ministry of Information blocked Google Maps from its citizens because it didn't want the local poors to see the private jets and residences of the Gulf statelet's riches. This got us wondering what sights our government has blocked citizens from viewing. We list five, below.

The White House is visible, but its rooftop defense system has been digitally erased.

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The federally-funded Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory only works on national security research. The kind you're not allowed to see. Or they'd have to kill you.

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The Shatt-Al-Arab Hotel in Basra, Iraq is no longer visible in Google Maps. Not after terrorists allegedly used the service to plan an attack, its not.

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The US Government requested Google not display Dick Cheney's house.

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You might be a terrorist, so you're not allowed to see what the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory looks like. Sorry.

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Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:40:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5025929&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Marissa Mayer, Google's "high priestess of simplicity," tells Yelp about her $300 highlights ]]> The email-newsletter headline had my business-minded editor all hot and bothered: "Yelp Goes to Google!" But no, this wasn't an oh-so-logical tuck-in acquisition of the local reviews site by the search giant. Instead, it was a sitdown with Marissa Mayer. In the interview, Mayer reveals her usual spreadsheet array of girly affectations: cupcakes! Manolos! highlights! I'm miffed about the highlights, because we have the same stylist, and as Mayer gushes like the best ladymag ingenue, "I hesitate to even say anything because she's so good and I'd hate for it to be harder for me to get an appointment." Still, cute to see her getting cozy with the review website, since if Google did take the plunge and acquire Yelp, it'd be Mayer, VP of Stuff People Actually Use, who'd make the call.

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Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:20:00 PDT Melissa Gira Grant http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5023405&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Apple replaces .Mac with MobileMe ]]>
At Steve Jobs's WWDC Keynote, Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has replaced .Mac, its computer-centric set of Web services, with MobileMe, an online suite of email, photos, and file storage. It's designed to keep iPhones, PCs, and Macs in sync — hence the need for a new name. Other than that, little has changed: The service still costs $99 a year — some rumors had it going free — and Apple is still designing the Web software itself, without help from a partner like Google. (Google Maps is now built into Apple's address book, however.) (Photo by Gizmodo)

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Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:20:00 PDT Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5014676&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google getting into sports? ]]> Watch out, ESPN.com: Google's after your fans. Derrick Eckhardt, a writer at fantasy-sports news site RotoNation, noticed that Google's serving up sports scores to mobile users. Eckhardt's sources tell him that Google has been looking at the sports market for a year, and greenlit a secret project to enter the sports-information business last November. There's no Google Sports portal, and no sign of the effort on Google's regular Web search. Should the likes of ESPN and Yahoo Sports be worried? Google Finance has yet to make a dent in Yahoo Finance. But remember how Google used to point users who typed in street addresses to Yahoo Maps? After Google created its own maps site, the links to Yahoo Maps swiftly disappeared. (Photo by Derrick Eckhardt)

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Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:20:00 PDT Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5012455&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ EU warns Google to respect privacy laws with Street View ]]> HorsePrivacy-thumbnail.jpgAfter reports of Google Street View vehicle sightings on the continent, an EU spokesperson reminded Google to respect local privacy laws. "Taking pictures on a street isn't in itself a problem but taking pictures anywhere can be." Maybe Google's advanced horse-recognition technology will mollify concerns? [CIO]

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Thu, 15 May 2008 13:40:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=390860&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google blurs Street View faces, including a horse's ]]> Google published updated Street View photographs for Manhattan this week. The changes include sharper images, an ability to look upward at the island's skyscrapers and, in an effort to satisfy nervous -nelly privacy advocates, blurred faces. Including one belonging to a publicity-shy relative of Mr. Ed, starring in his latest off-Broadway role.

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Wed, 14 May 2008 09:00:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=390278&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Italians mistake Google Street View car for prowling Gestapo ]]> GoogleStreetViewItaly.jpgA former neo-Facist, Gianni Alemanno, is the new mayor of Rome. He got the job promising to bulldoze homeless encampments, deport foreign criminals and install surveillance cameras, all in an effort to be tough of crime. So it isn't surprising to read reports that when Google's black Street View car, with its 360-degree camera mounted on top, came rolling down Viale Trastevere in Rome, citizens on the street immediately fled as though it were a horde of brick-wielding blackshirts chanting Me ne frego!

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Mon, 12 May 2008 15:00:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=389582&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View catches kid crashing bike ]]> Google's Street View trucks don't stop for anyone, or anything. The proof? An unsuspecting Cleveland resident is caught in an embarrassing tumble on a bicycle by Google's all-seeing eye. Doesn't seem like the driver bothered to stop and help, which is in keeping with the hyperefficiency demanded by their overlords in Mountain View. In the future, all our fails will belong to Google.

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Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:40:00 PDT Jackson West http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=383258&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View rolls into your driveway ]]> They haven't filed a lawsuit yet, like their neighbors the Borings, but the McKees' privacy was seemingly violated by a Google Street View car that drove up their driveway, snapping pictures all the way. Janet and George McKee live in the only home on Goldenbrook Lane, a gravel path that leads directly to their driveway — where the property line is. The Google car drove up Goldenbrook and continued all the way up their driveway to the front of the McKee's three-car garage and basketball hoop. Whoops. The Smoking Gun found and contacted the McKees, who said they found the pictures "creepy." Google claims "it takes images from public streets and only shows photos of locations that are in full view". Well, most of the time. See the full collection of images after the jump. Worst position in Google's legal department right now: Google Maps counsel.

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Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:20:00 PDT Jordan Golson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=376873&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Couple sues Google over Street View pics of their house ]]> This is the view that Aaron and Christine Boring don't want you to see. The couple — who live at 1567 Oakridge Lane, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA 15237, USA, according to their court filing — are suing Google over the company's "Street View" feature, which takes road-level pictures of neighborhoods for their mapping service. Among the complaints, the Borings — their actual name — accuse Google of an "intentional and/or grossly reckless invasion" of their privacy. More pics after the jump.

You see, their street — Oakridge Lane, Pittsburgh, PA, 15237 — is "clearly marked" by a "Private Road" sign. The Borings bought their home for a "considerable sum of money" — $163,000 — and a "major component" of that decision was a desire for privacy. They're also upset that their "private information was made known to the public."

The couple wants more than $25,000 and Google to remove the pics from Street View. That might happen, but these pictures of the Boring's home at 1567 Oakridge Lane, Pittsburgh, PA 15237 will be searchable on Google for all time.

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Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:40:00 PDT Jordan Golson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=376276&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View rival exposes Marissa Mayer's posh pad ]]> MapJack.jpgEven after a recent update, Google Street View's little yellow man wouldn't venture down Google VP Marissa Mayer's expensive alley. But MapJack's "Jack" mascot knows such privacy is an illusion. The rival to Google's 3D mapping service happily goes down Marissa Mayer's residential street. Below, see the street San Francisco cupcake delivery boys know so well.

MarissaMayerPad.jpg

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Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:40:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=374145&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google updates Street View in San Francisco, leaves Marissa Mayer's pad off the grid ]]> We thought maybe Google barred its little yellow Street View man from Marissa Mayer's road by accident. But, as the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Google Earth Blog reports that Google has updated its Street View feature with new maps throughout flyover country, as well as enhancements in the Bay Area. But did the camera trucks visit Mayer's little corner of Stevenson Street? See for yourself, below.


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Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:40:00 PDT Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=373375&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Find "Teh Market" on Google Maps ]]>

A straight shot down Shoreline boulevard from the Googleplex in Mountain View: Teh Market. I can see the engineers gleefully heading there to grab Mountain Dew and Doritos before their next LAN party.

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Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:20:32 PDT Jordan Golson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=368923&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Internet Explorer can't find a working version of Google Maps ]]> Google_Maps_IE8_small.jpgOutside of geekdom, Internet Explorer still dominates browser market share. That means for most people, the Web works the way Microsoft wants it to. And so far, for those using the newest version of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft's version of the Web doesn't include Google Maps. Or at least not a very useful version of it. We're sure a fix is high on Microsoft's priority list. Check out the screenshot Blogoscoped's Phillip Lenssen nabbed, below.

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Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:20:07 PST Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=365120&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Marissa Mayer gets a stoplight, and a room without Street View ]]> A reminder: Marissa Mayer lives on the 38th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, and you don't. With that address comes an unusual perk: Her own personal stoplight at Third and Stevenson. Mayer and the other residents of the concierge conclave have arranged to pay the city $165,000 for a traffic light at the dead-end street which leads to the hotel garage. (Remember that as you sit on a 9X Muni bus, waiting for the light to change.) Perhaps the light will make it easier for Google Maps, which Mayer oversees, to send a driver down Stevenson. Mayer has defended Google's Street View feature against charges of invading people's privacy — but Google's camera-cars have yet to venture onto her street. After the jump, minutes from the city meeting (PDF) accepting Mayer's gift:

Marissa meeting

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Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:00:37 PST Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=365008&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Another place Google won't take you ]]> The Pentagon will not allow Google Earth to show street level views of U.S. military bases, according to the AP saying it could aid terrorists. But Google is not above a bit of censorship itself. Just try and get a close look at the company's new San Francisco offices on Google Maps.

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Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:40:20 PST Evelyn Nussenbaum http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=364923&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View won't show Google's new San Francisco digs ]]> 1,200 Googlers moved into their new office at 345 Spear Street San Francisco this week. We thought we'd use Google Maps Street View to show you what the place looks like, but the little yellow man won't go there. How embarrassing for him. Fortunately, Curbed SF will. Check out what $20 million can buy in four photos, below.

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Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:20:38 PST Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=364601&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Sergey stymied: Prius doesn't work for Google Street View ]]> In Europe, Google's on a massive hiring binge for the Street View feature of Google Maps, where camera-equipped vehicles snap photos of streetscapes. It's bringing on 300 drivers for the Switzerland-based effort. But the project has been held up by the whim of a founder. Sergey Brin, we hear, is insisting that the project use hybrid Priuses, rather than the staid Saturn Astra it used in Australia, shown here, or the Chevrolet Cobalt Googlers drive in the U.S. Brin believes Toyota's gas-sipping Priuses are better for Google's image. Just one problem.

Priuses may be better for Google's corporate image, but not the images it hopes to snap for Street View. It's proved unfeasible to mount the bulky Street View cameras on a Prius. No word on whether Brin has been persuaded to compromise, or if his engineers have somehow found a solution. For now, it seems Google's hiring hundreds of drivers with nothing for them to drive.

(Photo by sebr)

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Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:20:35 PST Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=357517&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Down in the dumps ]]> Where Yahoo mapsForbes reporter Brian Caulfield searched for Yahoo on Google Maps. The directions steered him to Sunnyvale's municipal dump instead of the troubled Web giant. [Forbes.com]

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Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:13:32 PST Owen Thomas http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=355251&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google to display live Iowa caucus results on Google Maps ]]> Should we be creeped out that Google's getting into electoral politics? The search engine has launched a special Iowa caucus map on Google Maps. Innocent and useful enough, we suppose. Starting tonight, the page will display real-time caucus results by county and party from across the state. All this technology almost makes you want to vote online!

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Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:00:43 PST Jordan Golson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=340313&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Michael Arrington moderately hot in flyover country ]]> WhoIsThisDude.jpgHotflation — HotorNot meets Google Maps — may not be the very best mashup idea we've ever heard. But that's probably only because you haven't seen TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington's profile page yet.

Here's a screen grab we're taking while the site is still online, because we're sure once Arrington find out about this, it's war. Then again, perhaps he'll be flattered by the site's generous estimate of his weight. HotflationMA.jpg

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Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:21:34 PST Nicholas Carlson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=333143&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Google Street View rolls out in Boston and other places that don't matter ]]>
Google has introduced its spy-on-your-neighbors Street View service in more cities. Now unsuspecting patrons can be spotted entering strip clubs in Dallas, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, Valleywagger Tim Faulkner's hometown of Providence and my hometown of Boston. I've been waiting for Boston to be featured in Street View since it was introduced earlier this year. It's not particularly useful, other than saying "that's my house!" But, it's fun regardless. I do have one other complaint about Google Maps though.

We had a fairly large construction project in Boston that you might have heard of: The Big Dig. It involved taking 9 miles of elevated highway and putting it underground, plus a few new underwater tunnels and the widest suspension bridge in the world. The main parts were finished a few years ago and the entire project will be done eventually — or so they say. Unfortunately for us Bostonians, Google's satellite imagery of the project hasn't been updated in at least four years.

On the map below, you can see the suspension bridge without any cars or road markings on it, and an ugly bridge just to the right of it which has since been torn down. The road maps are correct if you go into road view, but we have OLD satellite data. Just northwest of the bridge you can see where the old sat shots and the new meet. Forget the street shots, Google: Upgrade our satellite photos, now! This service that you provide free of charge isn't worth what I paid for it!

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Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:46:38 PST Jordan Golson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=332583&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ GPS device maker TomTom has partnered with ... ]]> GPS device maker TomTom has partnered with Google so TomTom owners can send business name and address information directly from Google Maps to their sat-nav systems wirelessly. This is similar to the Send To Car feature that Google and BMW rolled out earlier this year. [Bloomberg]

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Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:28:23 PST Jordan Golson http://valleywag.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=330642&view=rss&microfeed=true