Google has goon maaaaaaaaaaadddddddddd

Befor I had finished this short article I had already thought of two dozen legitimate uses for a 3D city map. Some personal, some business related, all of wich would make my life easier and earn some money for someone. Terrorism and world domination never occured to me. Oh well, I guess thatt' what comes from having a LIFE.

Now I'll have a 3d map of that goat track that passes for Mission Street, not to mention where all the bums are and their encampments. Terrific!

The only problem I have with google is that they turn a blind eye on everything that happens in their communities. Try to reach someone in the company is virtualy impossible. I've been reading that the police is having a hard-time trying to investigate racial crime in Orkut for example, and Google does little to NONE to help. They just "don't make themselves responsible" (well, they think they're not, at least).

Racial crime in Orkut? WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

I don't want to sound TOO paranoid, but although this mapping in 3D sounds quite COOL, it also seems like it would provide an incredible amount of city-internals detail to those who would use the information for doing bad things -- in particular, terrorists would have complete detailed 3D maps of U.S. cities simply by accessing the web. Although they have 2D (satellite imagery) city information now, the additional detail would certainly allow them to reduce or eliminate much first-hand surveillance (and one chance to catch them early in any planning stages) since they could just get it electronically.

Is my concern warranted?

I think you are not paranoid. Someone will always take this "good" information and do something "bad." No need for cells in the US anymore. All they have to do is go to http://www.google.com and type what they want to see.

Someday, we may be able to type "bin laden" into Google and it will come back with a satelite image with a huge arrow(flashing) pointing to him sitting in a lawnchair drinking a cold one and wearing a "I love New York" t-shirt. (Oh - the irony!)

Why would a terrorist want a detailed 3D map? All they need to know is the big tourist spots, and a regular map you can buy at a convenience store.

thats a "truck"

Boy sounds like what MSFT will be releasing. Well I gues google must still ideas from someone.

what exactly do they mean by "trunk?"

Crazy, crazy stuff. Google never ceases to amaze. Can't wait to see this expanded to more cities.

It doesn't bother you in the least that Google is sticking their techie hands into every facet of the world...? This isn't paranoid of me, just common sense...Google is spreading itself into everything and anything...it's a more than a bit creepy, I will say that...

Think it's creepy read this
http://www.cnn.com/2005/...privacy.reut/index.html

collecting IP adresses and keeping your deleted email Google may be a good company but after reading articles like this you got to remember just like people it's not always what it seems how many times have you seen on the news a nieghbor going i can't believe he went postal he always seemed like a nice guy.(something to think about)

wow that sucks and definitely is creepy but i like my gmail just fine! :)

Google is just a front for the CIA, NSA, FBI. Military all the way(with regards to the way in which it stores info on us). This way, when you search, they will have a record of what you searched, where you searched from, and who was in the room with you.

Google is shaking the foundations of Yahoo, and in a blink will surpass them. Yahoo knows this. It was only a matter of time before the Internet Search Companies would see the value in this type of information. You "have" to ask yourself. "What other information are they storing about me?" Now, they have g-mail! The writing is on the wall. Don't give me the legal-smegal hype either.

The types of information that are being kept on us all(searches inclued) is staggering. Don't stop thinking! Our gov't is just as bad as the rest. Privacy is only a state of mind, and contextual at that! I am not a paranoid person at all, but I am not a idiot iether.

Thanks for the article Shy_One - good reading.

Google isn't really as large as people make it out to be. It has the top search engine (but not the top Web destination - which is Yahoo), a great mapping service, a shopping comparison service, a free Web mail service, and a news aggregator. Plus, it only makes money from text-based ads on its search engine. That's really nothing compared to some megacorporations out there.

Google does a lot of stuff, but it's not Citigroup or Haliburton.

So? They keep your data so what?
Unless you're searching for how to make bombs or something, it's not something you need care about too much.
Yeah I know all about privacy concerns and that, but if you're really bothered about privacy, pay for a proxy and disable cookies.
What would be the worst they could do with the knowledge that you've searched for, say, "freeware adware remover" or "cheats for halo".. sure they could market spam trying to tell you adware (and get in a whole heap of s**t for it) but that's what spam filters are for.

Actualy i'm more curious about why they need to collect such detailed information and seem to be getting into everything makes you wonder if it's possible to become the worst kind of add/spyware instead of going on your computer where it can be removed it waits for you to come online.

P.S you mentioned poxy server and cookies but you forgot don't use gmail to:)