Blogging

Street View, the driver’s-eye view on Google Maps, made its debut in the United States, but it’s now available in Australia and Japan, too.

Sydney, Australia now can be explored with Google Maps' Street View, shown with blue lines where available. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Google)

The Street View service has raised privacy hackles in some quarters, but it’s helped me navigate in areas I’ve never visited: What does the house I’m visiting look like? Or the street corner where I’m supposed to get off the bus? Or where exactly is that big-box retailer?

Google also is extending Street View to Europe, and in the process is gathering data that will let it create 3D models as well.

To alleviate privacy concerns, Google blurs faces in Street View.

(Via Google Blogoscoped.)

Read more:
Google Street View goes live in Australia, Japan

So maybe it’s not the end of Microsoft Outlook, but the news coming from Australia this week may be a sign of the changing times for the mighty Marketing machine. Google’s Gmail application has kicked Outlook out of the schools by Australia’s education sector. The New South Wales Department of Education has announced that Gmail will replace Outlook as the email application for over 1.3 million students.

A big win for Google, a big loss for Microsoft.

See more here:
Outlook Dumped for Gmail? Time’s Are a Changing