Google released a new mapping tool called Street View - a feature that combines street-level 360-degree photos with Google's now well known 2-D online maps. The images, created by a special truck that has driven roads in five United States cities, are insanely detailed, especially when one double-clicks on an image to zoom in. Users can move down the road image by image, as well as pan and zoom each image 360 degrees.
Before releasing the new photo-enabled product to the world, Google reached out to the National Network to End Domestic Violence to make sure that the business listings didn't include women's shelters and created a way for local domestic violence groups to get photos of shelters removed if they appear on Street View. Shelter and victim advocates can request an image be taken down via the site. The image will initially be blacked out, and after two weeks, it will disappear and simply not be part of the site's navigation, according to Cindy Southworth who heads the NNEDV's technology efforts, known as the Safety Net Project.
Photo: Woman on south side of Dolores Park in San Francisco caught on camera violating the leash law and allowing her rogue poodle to attack an innocent jogger while she blithely talks on her cell phone. Link.
