From Russia with visuals, Google has expanded their Street View product to include Moscow and St. Petersberg. The cities, largest and second-largest in the country, feature historical sites that people can now explore from the comfort of them computer or mobile device. The Kremlin, Red Square, and Peter and Paul Fortress are now within (most) everyone’s potential view. The image above shows Troitskaya Tower in the center of the northwest wall of the Moscow Kremlin. As with everything Google does these days, they’re pitching Google+, prompting people to share places from Street View on the…

As you’re well aware, most bodies of authority aren’t terribly thrilled with Google’s Street View these days, looking down upon the service as an invasion of privacy, etc, etc, you know how it goes. I, for one, forgive Google of its trespasses – quite frankly, Street View is an incredible tool, and – surprise! – Google tends to agree. “We often consider Street View to be the last zoom layer on the map, and a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person,” explains Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering for Google Maps. “Whether you’re checking out a coffee shop across town or planning…

Man, Google just can’t catch a break with Street View. Continuing the trend of countries casting a suspicious eye at the search giant, the Czech Republic has now banned Google from expanding Street View within the country. While details are still foggy at this point, according to the Office for Personal Data Protection, Google had not registered fro the activity. The office will rap about it next week, and we’ll know more. Because you’re dying to know the fate of Street View in the Czech Republic. Honestly, though, I kind of get a kick out of Street View. I get to stop and stare at totally alien landscapes…

Have you ever tried finding yourself in Google Street View? I have a friend who’s found himself twice. Both times he was pretty blurry, but there was no question. Twice. Six billion people. Found himself twice. What are the odds? If you’re going to go hunting though, you’d better hurry – Arturo Flores, a computer science grad student from UC San Diego, is working on a system that may one day render Google Street View one gigantic ghost town. No pedestrians at all. Flores says that situations such as my friend are exactly the problem that spurred his project – though Google goes to the trouble of blurring…

The question on lips across the techi-world this morning has to be “Who is horse-boy?” This image was captured by a Street View car driving through Aberdeen’s Hardgate area. In the absence of anybody claiming any crime reports featuring a horse-disguised miscreant, the identity of the horsey chap remains a mystery. Millions of Google Street View users have seen the image of the man, dressed in black trousers, a purple shirt and a brown and white horse’s head. Equally his existence could be a Google joke. The BBC reports horse-boy features in other parts of Google’s street view service….

Surely by now you’ve heard of that Google Street View debacle, wherein those crazy cameramobiles were ‘unintentionally’ grabbing data from unprotected wi-fi hotspots? Sure you have. Anyway, unintentionally or not, several owners of said unprotected hotspots are now banding together to slam Google with a class action lawsuit to the tune of ten thousand dollars per offending instance. Ow. The lawsuit detailed that “when Google created its data collection systems on its Google Street View vehicles, it included wireless packet sniffers that, in addition to collecting the user’s unique or…