Google Street View comes to Toronto, other Canadian cities

Over the past couple of years, several Google cars carrying advanced camera equipment could be seen on many streets in the Greater Toronto Area. Now the work of those cars brings Canadians Google's newest innovation -- Google Street View.

As the age of Internet innovation grows at a rapid pace, Google seems to have outdone themselves once again with Google Street View. Applying images that are linked to Google Maps and Google Earth, browsers can get top-notch, 360-degree views of the city’s intersection. Already available across the United States, Spain, Japan and Australia, Canadian cities such as Hamilton, Toronto, Calgary, Quebec City and others can be seen on Google Street View. Visitors can view high resolution images of a particular corner of a city he or she wishes to see, according to CBC. However, public officials and the general public have been very concerned about their privacy but Google has addressed those worries by blurring out faces and licence plates. Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart warned, after the service was launched in the US in 2007, Google Street View may not comply with Canadian privacy legislation, according to The Globe and Mail. Google does not have a monopoly on this service, however. Canpages Inc., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, provides Canadians with high resolution images in Vancouver, Whistler and other cities within BC. Already, Google Street View has helped police departments fight crime. According to Typically Spanish, in Madrid, Spain a 41-year-old man carried two fake pistols and two revolvers, which were capable of firing blanks but sounding real. Four police officers shot the man six times and now he is in custody at the Ramón y Cajal Hospital.