Instead of Germany banning Street View last year as expected, Google’s been the side to wave the white flag and bow out of the war. Normal Street View practice is to continually update Street view photography, but a Google spokesperson had stated they have no intention of doing so in Germany.
It’s unclear what prompted this move, but with nearly 250,000 people having opted to have their houses blurred instead of displayed for the whole internet to see, it could be that Google simply realised it was more trouble than it’s worth. [Search Engine Land]
Mr Adam Smolkowicz
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 11:04 AMWow surprising to see google backing down
Terence D
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 12:47 PMGermany just lost a valuable Google service. Well done!
Liam Johnson
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 12:59 PM@Mr. Adam Smolkowicz
you’re confusing ‘backing down’ with taking the sensible route. What’s the point in Street View if a majority of the view is blurred? Moreover, pushing ahead with the venture would have not only been a loss of money on their behalf, but also may have ended up being made illegal should it have annoyed certain people.
-think.
Wok
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 2:08 PMI like looking at other places, but I don’t like people seeing mine. Kinda similar to my attitude with Facebook too…
Nads
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 11:03 PMGoog on them (the Germans that is).