"Camera-shy pedestrians should be advised to stay indoors this summer as a fleet of Google-mobiles equipped with roof-mounted cameras trawl Australian capital cities snapping locales for the Internet search giant’s Google Street View. The cars will be doing the rounds in Australian capital cities, taking 360 degree panoramic street-level photographs to be used on Google Maps’ Street View feature."

Hahaha... this will be interesting. Can't wait to see the results :)

"Love this new feature of Google Maps. It’s so innovative, even though I’m not sure quite how useful it is but ultra-cool none the less...I ain’t no lawyer, but I always suspected that one of the reasons holding Microsoft back from releasing this stuff to the public was the legalities of the imagery that was taken and the privacy surrounding it...So, as I suspected would happen, it didn’t take long for the backlash over Google’s streetside photography."

Nice summary of Google's issues ahead, but really it just pushes the rule that allows public photography without consent to the max.

"03. Guy getting out of strip club.
We’re gonna have to be honest here: the guy looks like he’s merely paying for parking. But, that’s a strip club behind him, and we will, of course, assume he just spent some sexy time with Mimi and Peaches. Is that a happy grin on his face? Sure it is. "

LOL, and now forever enshrined in the big Google black hole for everyone to see.

Metlink, Melbourne's public transport website, has just added google-style maps to its journey planner. You can now click where you want to go on a map; useful when you don't know what the exact address is.

I wonder what mapping platform they're using, as there are no copyright notices on the maps...

Good work Metlink! Now let's get some of the things I suggested working (http://driveactivated.com/blog/archive/2007/01/08/bringing-metlink-s-website-up-to-speed.aspx)