Murder, car crashes, fires, scuba divers, top secret deliveries, topless girls tanning, breaking and entering… all caught on Google street view. As more and more cities around the world become visible on street view, users spend hours roaming the streets in search of scandal. It was only a few weeks ago that roamers stumbled across a murder scene outside a strip club in Windsor, Ontario, where the street view cameras had captured images only hours after a man had been stabbed. Upon the discovery, all the images surrounding the scene were deleted, and the news spread like a wildfire. Since the release of Google street view, the debate about its disregard for privacy issues has raged on, and for some this was the ultimate violation.
However despite all this hostile clutter, Google may now be looking into a program that will allow advertisers to post new ads over top of the existing billboards caught in street view. Since the images from some cities are as old as two years, billboards that were up at the time have been lucky enough to have their media buy extended virtually for free. If Google passes off the idea, these ads could become permanent virtual structures. Think about it. One of these potentially permanent ads is a truck sign for an escort service with “Hot Babes” plastered across it in large tacky font, and a larger than life image of a scantily clad woman. So while some may find the idea of Google street view being used as an ad media rather annoying, just think of all the wasted pixels that are floating around out there right now, and think of your kids wandering down street view. What would you rather them see: “Hot Babes” or a new ad for Coke?
