Michigan Band Hijacks Google Street View Car
A Grand Rapids, Michigan country band, “Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys,” has hacked Google for the sake of artistry. No, I’m not talking about the search engine giant’s homepage itself, I’m talking about one of it’s cars used to map for street view. Supposedly they had a source at Google that allowed them to use one of the mapping vehicles to shoot their latest music video. It certainly looks like street view footage. The shot jumps forward and follows a pickup truck down a wooded road, as if someone is clicking down the path in Google Maps.
The youtube video’s commenters are a little bit skeptical. While they think it is creative, some point out the the faces of the band members would be blurred if it was an actual street view stream. That’s a good point, given Google’s strict privacy policy they follow for all of their imaging within maps. However, maybe that’s a feature that their “source” at Google was able to turn off as it was being filmed. Or maybe the blur effect isn’t applied until the footage is uploaded into Google’s servers.
In any case, it’s a cool idea – and shows the breadth of tech’s reach into mainstream. A good ol’ country song with a little touch of supposed Mountain View magic. You be the judge.
