Top 10 Things NOT to Do with Google Street View

Some of you have discovered Google Street View. It's a function of Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/ . (The reduced image to the left is looking up my street, Erin Drive, from from West Chestnut)

I can think of quite a few applications for Google Street View, and have in fact used it in writing Before Oprah: Ruth Lyons, the Woman Who Invented Talk TV (out in October). I took tours of Ruth Lyons' old neighborhood, which I'd visited before, to confirm my memories. I also found most of the houses and apartments she'd lived in in Street View, and all of them with the satellite view.

Google Street View can be an important research tool for writers. When you put your mind to it, you'll probably think of quite a few ways to use it to save time and money, over traveling to a given location.

But what do you want to avoid with Street View? Well, Alex Kidman at Australian PC Magazine suggests that the trail Google Street View leaves on your system might get you arrested for stalking (I say "intent to stalk," since it's virtual). He's compiled a list of such times, titled The Top Ten Things NOT to Do with Google Street View. Click the title to have a look!
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com