I can see my house! Well, nearly. I can see the start of Brynland Avenue but I’m just out of range. I don’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved.

The Google Maps feature first arrived in 2005 and was well received; a free online map service that saved many from ‘Satnav Syndrome’ (a mental illness inspired by the intonation of Tom Tom’s sarcastic female Stephen Hawkins-sound-a-like protagonist). Now, just over a month ago, the mighty web engine Google added the new ‘Street View’ service to its already formidable internet presence, uploading photos of every nook and cranny of our city centres available for the world to see. Street View has provoked a storm of protest with the British media predictably jumping on the old civil liberties/privacy bandwagon but are they just trying to flog units or do they have a point – is this new feature a step too far? Where do you draw the line?

Street View currently covers 25 out of a possible 66 British cities centres, which produces rather uneven coverage - not ideal for espionage. That’s not to say that there is no issue - matey who was unlucky enough to have his car photographed in his mistress’ driveway is not really it though. From all the controversy you might think Google are streaming high def feeds from every letterbox!

There is much suggest that we are one of the most spied on nations on Earth but the culprit isn’t Google. Street View is just a series of photos which actually give an honest snapshot of modern Britain, in a certain cynical sort of way. Personally, I think the images of the Rab C wannabe sunbathing in his string vest in Glasgow, matey spewing on his shoes in Shoreditch, someone having a pee on a lamppost in Brum and the two cyclists crashing into each other down by the Lakota in Bristol are amusing, largely harmless and offer an unusually unbiased cultural insight into the places documented. But then that’s easy for me to say, I wasn’t featured.

www.google.co.uk/maps

Andy Walker