Smile! You're on Google camera
BATLEY and Birstall are on the map.
But this is not just any map. This is the controversial Google StreetView Map which has been extended to include the Batley area for the very first time from today.
The web giant has taken 360 degree images of every home, business and
school, at street level, and uploaded them onto the internet.
The photographs are taken by a car which drives along each street with a
camera attached to its roof. It snaps whatever it finds - people doing their shopping, smoking outside pubs or coming home from work.
People's faces and car registration plates are blurred out and anyone with concerns about inappropriate or sensitive images can ask for them to be removed.
But critics have dubbed it the 'Burglar's Charter', saying that by showing images of expensive cars in driveways, as well as the layout of streets and back gardens, burglars could plan their next job from the comfort of their armchairs.
Google first launched street view images of 25 UK cities in March 2009.
As of today, it has added an extra 200,000 miles of public road to the website and now covers almost all the UK. But Google says the images on
view will show no more detail than someone would see from walking down the street and images are at least two months old so would be of little use to thieves.
Insp Neil Money, of Batley, Birstall and Birkenshaw NPT, agreed there wasn't much risk of crime. He said: "Burglars tend to have a walk about themselves and have a physical check of streets and that's why people should keep an eye out for anyone hanging around during the day who looks a bit suspicious. I really don't think they'll use the Google Map to plan a job."
See Street View for yourself by visiting maps.google.co.uk, typing in your address and selecting 'Street View'.
For a view of Commercial Street, <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=commercial+street,+batley&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.739664,28.168945&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Commercial+St,+Batley,+West+Yorkshire,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.713936,-1.632231&spn=0,359.
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Weather for Batley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
