Nosing around StreetView, I discover something that gives me an inordinate amount of glee: the GoogleVan going through the drive thru of a McDonald’s. Oh, woe, Google, I had thought much more of thee: come on–a McDonalds? I expected so much more from The Goog…

So, as I continue to amuse myself with StreetView: The Triangle, I ran across something that made me go “Hmmmm”. If you take a look at StreetView on Walnut Street, and you head past the McDonald’s on Walnut Street, for three segments you get jarringly dropped into…

That’s right: the McDonald’s parking lot. Evidently the GoogVan was cruising past MickeyD’s during lunch, and decided to hit the drive thru.

My proof? Well, take a look at this picture: Obviously the van is pulling away from the drive thru.

Next, take a look back as the GoogVan makes its escape: see the arrow?

The drive thru is one way only. In fact, if you rotate around, you’ll see Goog’s StreetView amusingly insists that Cary town planners aren’t too bright, as, evidently, Walnut Street goes right through…

a tree. No word on whether that’s a walnut tree. The point? Well, SpyView…er…StreetView is a two way, um street. Yes, you can look into my home’s windows. But then again, I can catch you going to MickeyDs. Muahahahahahahahahahahahahaha….er….hahahaha…heh….*sigh*

Thought for the Day: Ever look where Google is busily taking pictures for it’s StreetView feature? Some of the cities might surprise you: Boise, Idaho. Manchester, New Hampshire. Now, StreetView has come to the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area…

So, I was trying to get a map put together for a friend to my house, and in the process I discovered that Google Maps’ StreetView had come to my neighborhood. I’m not a conspiracy theorist. And yes, the title graphic is a bit, er, conspiracy like (I was having fun with it–the eyes in the “oo” of Goog are Eric Schmidt’s…a bit puffy if you ask me). Granted, I was a bit freaked out when I looked at my home address and saw this:

Yes. That’s my house (lens flare and all), with my Acura parked out front (which is in sore need of a wash, but seeing as we’re still under drought conditions, I don’t think a sparkley clean car is worth the fine…OK, so Cary actually has an exception for washing your car…but it’s a convenient excuse not to wash the car, so I’m sticking with it). Now, the fact that Google is busy taking pictures of streets isn’t so curious–Google has been doing Street View for a while.

But what I found odd was where they had done StreetView. NYC? Makes sense. But…um…Raleigh? So, I started looking at what cities Google had sent it’s roving street voyeur to, and the results were…surprising:

Every place you see a “camera” icon, well, that’s a city that’s been mapped (you can check out a larger image here). Now, it’s an interesting map, especially when you look at the cities not covered…and which ones are. For instance, I can understand Miami. But Boise? Nothing against Idahoans, but I just don’t see Boise as having as much tourist traffic as, say, New York City. And, oddly, Portland, but not Seattle. Or how about Tuscon, but not Washington DC? Well, K, DC might not be a good idea from a security standpoint, but that still doesn’t explain why there’s no StreetView, er, view, of Atlanta or New Orleans.

What really makes one think, however, is the question of what method is being used for this particular form of madness? The current selected cities seems as if someone has pulled one too many cups from the keg…I can imagine a large map of the US on some wall in the Googleplex, and after a Friday afternoon kegfest, a drunken finger smudging a point on the map: “That’s our next city!”

But we know Google is a bit smarter on how they spend money. Well. We’d like to think so. Which brings us to the point: why these cities? Why now? Does Google have some nefarious plan for the poor citizens of Boise? Does it seek to install secret facilities at the cities which don’t seem to make much sense? Does Larry and Sergei have hidden vacation cottages at these cities…or did someone just think it’d be amusing to map out the streets of Manchester (New Hampshire)?

K, you conspiracy nut jo…er…theorists, shoot away!

Oh–and one last note–is it me or does the Google StreetView map look like an ungodly virus right in the middle of North Carolina? Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself…