This is a screenshot of downtown Osoyoos available through the Street View feature on Google Earth. Osoyoos street views became available on Feb. 8. Image courtesy of Google - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-February 17, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
Google’s Street View feature is now available for Osoyoos and web surfers can take a trip through the community while sitting in front of their computer.
The search engine giant launched the Osoyoos street view feature overnight on Feb. 8.
Using Google Earth, just type Osoyoos into the “Fly to” field found under the search tab in the home page’s upper left-hand corner.
From there, you’ll zoom into town from high above.
By clicking on cameras dispersed across a map of Osoyoos, you can come right down to Earth and have a 360-degree, ground-level view of the immediate area.
You can zoom in and out, swivel left, right, up and down or click on camera icons in the distance to move down the road.
Views are available for downtown Osoyoos, sections of Hwy. 3 east and west of town, the Osoyoos border crossing and parts of Hwy. 97.
Tamara Micner, a spokeswoman for Google Canada, said the images of Osoyoos were captured last spring and summer.
Local drivers were hired to drive a vehicle through town and take shots of the community.
“We have a sedan that has an array of panoramic cameras on top to capture a 360-degree view,” Micner said.
At the same time as the Osoyoos street view was launched, Google introduced the feature for 130 other towns and cities across Canada including views of Whistler.
Some views in and around Whistler were taken by snowmobile and visitors to Google Earth can now get views of the competition venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
They can be found at http://www.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery/#utm_campaign=en&luge.
Street views were also launched the same night for communities in Finland and Norway, Micner said.
Launched in the spring of 2007, the street view feature is sensitive to privacy, she said.
Faces and licence plates are automatically blurred before any image goes live on the Internet.
Micner said Google created special software to take care of blurring objects that could raise privacy concerns.
Nevertheless, the street view feature has brought up questions about privacy since detailed images of personal property can be accessed by anyone using the application.
Micner said people can report any privacy problems to Google and ask for further blurring if they feel an image is privacy “sensitive.”
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