The new 'Street View' feature of Google Maps has exploded across the web in the past few days. It allows you to zoom right in to extreme close-up and get right down to street level (in some cities and towns), and even take a walk along a street in, say, San Francisco.
Already, and for good reason, 'Street View' is freaking people out over the astounding lack of privacy this new feature can deliver, and making an instant legend out of the unfortunate man 'Who Chose The Worst Possible Time To Exit A Strip Club'.
As for the image above, just what the hell is ET doing? Clearly he is firing off his laser beam, but why?
Yeah, yeah, we know. The best explanation for WTF this actually shows is this one from a commenter at Gizmodo - something about an image glitch caused by light shining between two lenses or something.
Boing Boing has an astounding collection of links from readers, many of whom are very freaked out by just how much detail 'Street View' is revealing, including peoples' faces, vehicle liscence plates and even someone's cat, right through the bedroom window.
This Mapper managed to find an image of his neighbour putting out the garbage just down the road. Weird.
Update : ET is at work with his laser again, this time at a New York airport.
