Google Street View Continues March, Introduces Embedded Version

According to Boston.com, Google’s Street View images are rolling out to more US cities today, including Boston, Providence, Dallas, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Detroit, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. Google Operating System counts the total number of US cities with StreetView now as 23. StreetView is also actively in development in Canada, Europe, and Australia.

In addition, Google is also making StreetView imagery and maps capable of being embedded in third party sites, as can now be done with regular Google Maps. According to Boston.com:

Google is also introducing a “mashup” service today that will enable Internet users to import Street View panoramas from particular streets or neighborhoods to their own websites or blogs. The service is intended to make it easier for people to use Street View to recommend sights, locate coffee shops, or design cyber-walking tours.

The Boston.com article also says that Google is not going to blur personally identifiable information in the US, despite being required to do so in Canada and Europe:

But while Google has developed technology that can obscure faces and license plate numbers in Street View images, the Mountain View, Calif., company has said it will blur faces and plate numbers only in countries where it is required to do so, not in the United States.

However, this seems to contradict Google’s privacy counsel Jane Horvath, who previously said that Google was seriously considering doing the same in the US market though it’s not legally required to do so.

Postscript Barry: Google has now posted an entry at the Google LatLong Blog on this news.