Britain - the thorn in the side of Google

Following the recent furore over changes to Google's brand name bidding policy, executives would probably have been hoping for an easier ride for roll-out of the search engine giant's latest initiative from the US.

Google is reported to have been filming in the streets of London for its Street View additions to Google Maps.

But now it appears privacy campaigners are not happy at all - oh no, they are not.

Google has already started snapping away in France, but UK rights group Privacy International has kicked up a fuss about the Google car's presence on the streets of the capital.

[Pic from Tour de France cycle race route in France]


The BBC reports:

Privacy International has also asked Google about 'the steps, if any, that you have taken to consult the public over the use of their images for what is, in effect, a commercial purpose'.

Mr [Simon] Davies [of PI] added: 'Google likes to think of itself as a global player. In reality it is acting like an irresponsible adolescent.

'It's time for the company to take responsibility for its actions and to do the right thing.'

Now one suspects that unless a court injunction follows (unlikely), the efforts of PI will probably be in vain in this area.

Nevertheless, Google must be wondering what this annoying little island of ours has against it at the moment.

UPDATE: Techcrunch UK has a good picture of the camera-car in action.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google maps street view tour de france

Up, up and away

For those struggling to fill their days in between playing with Facebook, Last.fm and working, here's something to check out:

Technical issues (firewalls, poor graphics cards etc) are preventing us from fully exploiting this rather exciting development from the brainiacs at Google.

Buried in the code for Google Earth is a flight simulator!

Apparently users only need the latest version of Google Earth before pressing CTRL-ALT-A and it's taxi, full thrust and gear-up!

Some pictures from Mashable and Boing Boing below. Google Earth has intructions on how to control the two aircraft available: a rather speedy F16 Viper or the rather more sedate Cirus SR22 four-seater.

Anyone had a go yet? Please report back...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: google earth flight simulator

Introducing...Mapjack.com

Another very good site out of the US, Mapjack.com is a walking tour of sorts of San Francisco - but with a twist.

Rather than have functionality seperated into different channels on the site, Mapjack is a mash-up of Google Maps, Google Earth and their own, well-shot 360-degree views.

In simple terms: as users navigate around map or aerial view on the bottom half of the screen, the upper area changes automatically.

As Jebworks rightly points out, adding hotels and other attractions from around the city - and, indeed, other cities around the world - would make it much more useful.

But as a concept it really is rather good.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: mapjack mash-up san francisco aerial view

Mash-up collections

The “mash-up” count at the recent Travolution@WTM conference must have run into the dozens – such is its growing popularity as a key tenet of Web and Travel 2.0.

Therefore for fans of the concept, Programmableweb.com has created a list of some of the best travel mash-ups on the web.

Our favourites include:

• London For Free [entertainment and attractions for the UK capital]
• Siam Soundtrek [heritage site for Bangkok]
• Terrapass [a carbon footprint calculator for flights and road transport]
• Virtual Tourism [maps and videos of global destinations]

And for the macabre amongst you:

Crashmap.us [details road fatalities in the US!]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution