So, after months roaming the streets of the UK with camera cars that look like a cross between Coronation Street taxis and twenty-first century scarecrows, Google has finally launched Street View.  You can now take a street-level ride through 25 UK cities via the Street View function in Google maps. To be honest,  I was beginning to wonder if they’d ever make it.  I thought maybe extreme traffic congestion was stopping the Google photo cars from actually getting around - leaving Google with masses of film of the same few buildings.  Or perhaps that the continually repeating congestion charge was causing Google a severe financial problem that threatened the ROI on this project.  Or maybe they were experiencing an unacceptably high clamp rate. At one point I even thought  some pro-privacy caution could be prevailing at the Googleplex.   Whilst all this was going on, The Register produced a neat map showing photo sightings of Google’s Street View cars in the UK, but it does look like… well, a congestion map.

All this got me wondering what the applications in marketing might be. And despite coming up with some interesting ideas (obvious beneficiaries could be house hunters and estate agents), the fact that much of the imagery will be out of date by the time it is viewed will limit its utility.  It can’t tell you if a shop is open or  closed, and it may even suggest that your local Woolworths is still alive and kicking, not to mention MFI, Whittard or Zavvi. But all is not lost; if you need to see the outside of a tyre replacement firm, dentist or builders merchant before you avail yourself of their products and services, then Google Street View may well be for you.

Here’s to it though. And if the privacy lobby were worried yesterday, they’ll probably be apoplectic today.