Google cars roaming Winnipeg streets, taking pics
Last Updated: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | 8:15 PM CT
CBC News
This car, outfitted with cameras, is one of two that have been cruising Winnipeg's streets, taking pictures for Google's Street View online service. (Chris Armstrong/CBC)Get ready for your close-up, Winnipeg.
Internet giant Google has been roaming the Manitoba capital this week, snapping photos of city streets, people, buildings, landmarks, park benches and just about anything else as part of a virtual online map called Street View.
Winnipeg is one of 11 Canadian cities to get the Google treatment over the next few months. The others are Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, Quebec City, Saint John and Saskatoon.
The Street View service, which provides viewers with an image that can be rotated a full 360 degrees, hasn't launched in Canada yet. The company hasn't set a launch date, only saying a couple of weeks ago it will happen "very soon."
The service is already available in cities in the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Australia, Japan and several other countries. It offers close-up views of city streets as someone driving along them would see them.
That's exactly how the images, linked to the company's Google Maps and Google Earth applications, are captured. The car cruising through Winnipeg is outfitted with a series of cameras and a tall tripod on its roof.
As part of privacy laws, Google has promised to blur any faces captured by the camera to protect identities.
The application has come under criticism, especially in the U.K. In an interview with the Times Online newspaper this week, the head of Google Maps, John Hanke, dismissed concerns that it might help burglars plan where to strike.
