Google Street View is a useful tool for investigators to gain context about a given geographical location such as what is around it, what the dominant features of the location are, whether or not it looks expensive, what its proximity to other things is, etc.

Of course there are concerns that the Google Street View team might accidentally catch someone in their birthday suit or some other compromising position; but the probability of a specific subject of an investigation being in a given location at the exact time that the Google Street View people were driving by is pretty low. In other words, a reliable surveillance tool this ain’t.

Interestingly Canpages has begun to use “street-view-type-technology” for its directory service in some parts of the country. It also allows businesses to post images of themselves on line so that users can see what the location looks like. Finally, in some locations it has feeds from local traffic cameras. All of which would be great for gaining background information on a given location.