Could you turn up multiple times on the Google Streetview if you're jogging alongside the GoogleCam? Or is it going too quickly? Cycling along?

Someone's got to do it...

and must have a tough time with height barriers when they pop to Salisbury's for a lunchtime sandwich....

I find the use of a crappy Astra with a camera on a pole really upsetting, I was hoping for some giant van/truck thing with cameras all over it and aerials and point things, rather like the mapping trucks:

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/teleatlas-mapping-van-a1000.php

Anyway, I'm safe, there's a 6'9'' bridge on my road and i doubt the pilots of this will bother to get out and take the thing off just to get an extra 10ft of imagery.

(where's the angel/devil icon for Sergey or Larry? I guess no-one owuld recognise them!)

I drove past one in Oxford the other day. No photo though.

With a primitive eyestalk?

How long before we hear the cries for "Exterminieren" from these obvious Google proto-Daleks?

17:20 joining the M1 Southbound at Junction 14. The camera was folded down and covered.

Last night on the anti-clockwise stretch of the M25, approaching Heathrow, around 7.30.

Had a tarp covering the camera gubbins though, so was obviously off-duty.

Or was it? Perhaps they've fitted some form of x-ray vision that can actually penetrate the tarp cover and beyond. Walls, cars, clothes, curtains. they're going to photograph everything and show every detail of our lives to the world.

God. What if I was picking my nose when it went past? I was in a queue, and there was nothing else to do. Oh, the indignity.

All the cars so far seem to have been registered in Bournemouth this year

Looks like the one from Inverness is heading north, it appeared outside my workplace yesterday in Ullapool - pic of it at http://friedhardware.net/images/gc1.jpg

...so maybe what WE need to do (collectively) is to plot the car reg against the location on a daily basis....

So far, there seem to be three cars:

LJ08 AYB

LJ08 AYV

LJ08 AYW

any more?

Then we can plot them on Google Earth - this could be a fun thing to do, during this summer, when everything else is going downhill (economy, house prices,...) leaving us plenty of time to twiddle our thumbs...now we can be pro-active !

(IT coz we need it now...!)

The Daily Wail is running a front-page piece about this today... I'm sure you don't want any comparisons! Or, even worse, a mention!

"A Campaign Run By Prominent IT News Site *The Register* Refers to Google's Plans As 'Orwellian' - SomeThing Must Be Done!!!!"

Just spotted one in a small village in the French Alps too....

Is there no place to hide??

Just past me on The Triangle at 12:10 today (11th July) but the camera was covered up prolly due to the weather. It should be used in the drizzle since that would give the rest of the planet a fair representation of what Bristol is actually like.

Shame it was covered, there goes my 1.5s of fame. I was even carrying a laptop and a bar of chocolate.

Someone.... needs to make a wiki-cum-maps-cum-mashup site for us to plot the appearance of these cars/darleks/camera-wielding-google-overlords to our hearts' content (how about an enterprising El Reg reporter...?)

Follow the gCar see how many miles of street map you can pollute...

Prizes for the most frames...

World domination, could it be any clearer?

LJ08 AYB - All Your Base

LJ08 AYV - All Your Villages

LJ08 AYW - All Your World

I saw the Leeds one on Wednesday evening parked on someone's driveway in Burley about half a mile from Kirkstall. Presumably this was where the driver lived and it was parked up for the night rather than a particularly closeup photo shoot.

Bournemouth?

So do they have dodgy reg plates on then? 'LJ' is one of the identifiers for Wimbledon DVLA office.

Bournemouth is HA - HJ. 'H' for Hampshire and Dorset, 'L' for London see. :-)

Wonder when the first house getting robbed after people checking the backyards out via StreetView.

...on Thursday. No pic I'm afraid.

My mate Tim is anoyed because Google is barging in on his patch. All the time spent setting up this: http://ccgi.newsnet.force9.co.uk/vleam/showpage.php - will be wasted as everyone will go to the evil Google ! They wouldn't like it if he set up his own search engine would they ?

I'm appalled at Google's blatent ignorance of the current 'carbon footprint' debate taking place in this green an (un)pleasant land of ours... I mean, travelling from Ullapool all the way to SALISBURY for a sarnie? Come to think of it, travelling to Salisbury from ANYWHERE just for an overpriced, tasteless, nutrient-free uber-meal-deal... It's just BONKERS!

Mine's the one with the Pot Noodle and chocolate Snack-a-Jacks in the pocket...

This seems to be one concern, on "security" grounds so the burglars dont know where to go (not convinced denying them google will stop this as they've done well enought without it for millenia). I live on a private road. marked as such on the only entrance. Will the cars be driving up and down these? Quite a few estates (both private and "social housing") are also not formally open to non-residents.

I seem to recall that as far as the press goes, they cant use photos taken by trespassing (notwithstanding the normal need for an injuction) under their codes of practice (Ha!). Would this apply to these cars?

They're getting everywhere... there's one parked up on the outskirts of Liverpool, not far from the docks. (http://crosbyseabank.blogspot.com)

I've not seen it out working but it's in a small cul-de-sac, close to Bootle Docks - could it be waiting for the rest of the invasion fleet to arrive?

But don't worry, if it looks like moving we'll soon have the wheels off it...

Looks like they reached Milton Keynes then.

Mind you they wont have had to take many images as the roads and estates look the same and a vast majority of the roundabouts have mobile masts on them which of course also look the same.

As regards comments about the choice of vehicle, a Corsa makes sense in the current financial climate with petrol and diesel prices being so high as they are obviously clocking up the miles but I doubt Google would notice a fuel bill for a mill or more.

Mine's the one that says 'the best road in MK is any that leads out of it'

I second the call for Evil Larry/Sergey icons.

sorry folks it is an Astra

I just saw one on Durham Road in Newport, South Wales as I was waiting at traffic lights. The cameras weren't covered up but I didn't have a camera with me to get a pic. They probably snapped me staring into space waiting for the green light though :)