Before there was Street View, regular Google Maps had the bird's eye view. There you can see the tops of your houses, the streets, where there are small side roads, etc. To be honest and quite blunt, Street View is pretty slow on most computers. At times, it's also a bit confusing to use. I personally think that plain old Google Maps is more helpful than Street View. You can see the routes you would need to take and could have a path made out for you. Street View just seems like a fancy new toy for people to play around with.
I'm sure that technically speaking, Google hasn't broken any laws. It's a widely known search engine, so they've covered all the legal aspects. However, have they covered all the moral aspects? I mean, yes, license plates and faces have been blurred out.
But are those really the only things people don't want on the Internet? The majority of people I've asked agreed that it doesn't really help. Other than the fact that the rest of the person or car is still visible, they aren't comfortable with their house being viewed either. People's bodies, homes, property are all included in their respective privacies. If a person were to walk around neighbourhoods and just film his surroundings (including open windows with clear views inside), no doubt people would be uncomfortable. Google Street View is in no way different.
In general, I don't think it was a good idea. Street View violates people's privacy, and to be honest, blurring faces and license plates doesn't help at all. It doesn't seem to be much more helpful than Google Maps, at least not enough to make up for the cost of privacy. In the end, I feel like the product doesn't match up to the cost.
