Google Street View comes to Juneau

Google Maps Street View has officially made its way to Alaska, with its debut last month in Juneau. Juneau is one of about 30 cities around the country where Google has used specially equipped vehicles to photograph all of the city’s streets, allowing users to take a virtual tour of the city by navigating its streets.

Here’s a view from in front of the capitol building:

And another of the Governor’s mansion:

When Google first introduced the Street View feature, many people voiced privacy concerns that Google was allowing people from around the world too close a look into their private lives. Some websites even began collecting some of the more “interesting” images that could be found on Google Street View, including girls sunbathing, a man going into an adult bookstore, and another man coming out of a strip club.

Some of these images may seem a bit close to “Big Brother”, but the fact of the matter is, all of the photos were taken from a public street, so there is nothing that can be seen on Google Street View that you or I or anyone else couldn’t see by simply walking or driving past. Anything that is visible from a public street is perfectly legal to photograph.

Personally, I like the new Street View feature. When Google first introduced it in larger cities like New York, I had fun exploring the streets of Manhattan from the comfort of my living room. Something like this can only help the tourism industry in Alaska. It is certainly no replacement for actually being here, and when people around the world are able to use this site to get a small taste of the beauty of this state, they will be more inclined to want to visit so they can see it for themselves. How can that be a bad thing for Alaska?

Update: rumor has it that a Google Street View car was spotted in Anchorage this fall – I wonder how long it will be before Anchorage will be up on the site?