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Monday, Dec. 29, 2008

Google now has ground-level eye on Macon

You can now check out your house, your neighbor’s house and their neighbor’s house on Google Maps.

Macon, Warner Robins and most other Georgia cities were included in a recent update of the popular Internet Web site. Now, instead of just giving directions and an overhead view of homes and other buildings on Middle Georgia streets, you can see a 360-degree picture from the street itself.

That’s because Google sent a car up the street with a camera attached to the roof. The “street view” service was already available for Atlanta and other major cities in the United States, but this month, smaller cities across the country were added as well.

“We doubled our coverage in the U.S.,” Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo said. “We were getting a lot of requests.”

The street view isn’t in real time; it’s just a snapshot of a moment. In Macon’s case, the pictures seem to be from more than a year ago.

The leaves are just starting to change colors, and the Cox Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon is advertising a Nov. 6 event. Macon’s new hotel isn’t under construction yet near the Macon Coliseum and Wilson Convention Center. It was 64 degrees that day, according to the Atlanta Postal Credit Union’s sign downtown.

In some cases, people are frozen in time, standing in their front yards. Porches that needed a fresh coat of paint are immortalized.

“I will forever have a Robert Reichert sign in my front yard,” said local attorney Steve Wilson, who first noted that Macon had been “Googlized” on his blog.

Though there have been some concerns about privacy issues in other places, local authorities said they haven’t heard any complaints. Macon Police Chief Mike Burns and Bibb County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. George Meadows said they don’t see a security problem with the pictures, which are nothing more than the view from a public street.

If anyone has a problem with a picture, they can click the “report a concern” link in the bottom left corner of the picture, Filadelfo said.

The service is “great for exploring your hometown,” Filadelfo said. But people can go anywhere, allowing them to “virtually walk down the streets of Tokyo.”

The service also can be used to improve directions from the Web site, which provides turn-by-turn navigation to most any address.

“If it says turn left on Main street, you can see that Main Street is where there’s an Exxon gas station,” Filadelfo said.

Sure, there’s the practical side. But it’s also just kind of cool.

“We’re not just a dot on a map anymore,” Wilson said. “You can see our faces.”

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.