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"People are using Google Street View for more than checking travel routes. You can use the mapping tool to test hotel neighborhoods, to take virtual tours of the world\u2019s most famous art galleries, or to arrange imagery for innovative photography and video projects.\n\nSEE ALSO: Top 28 Google Street View Sightings\nThe Google Street View (GSV) car, fitted with 15 directional cameras, captures panoramas from over 30 countries \u2013 but not without controversy. In 2010, GSV cars inadvertently collected payload data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, and a few weeks ago Google offered an opt-out from Wi-Fi tracking to curb further criticism. Similarly, privacy advocates object that the GSV cameras film potential break-ins, men entering adult bookstores and other activities people would prefer not be photographed.\nAaron Hobson\u2019s Cinemascapes project helps to remind us that Google\u2019s mapping tool still has its virtues. Hobson\u2019s photo series includes beautiful images of remote locations found on GSV. \nAnd his photo collections are only the beginning. Read on to discover five creative uses of Google Street View imagery.\n1. Aaron Hobson: Beautiful Images of Remote Locations\n\nPhotographer Aaron Hobson has combed GSV to find breathtaking images of mountain passes, crossroads and forests heavy with fog. The images proved so popular that last week his website crashed with the weight of 50,000 visitors in one day.\nHobson became \u201Caddicted to this world of virtual travel\u201D after using GSV to scout locations for a film he is directing in Los Angeles. Soon he was exploring other places around the globe for his own amusement. \u201CI would start on a remote road in Norway, for example, and just go forward on it for miles and miles,\u201D he explained in an email interview. Hobson spent hours on GSV, strolling through empty countryside, tundra and deserts, \u201Cremote locations of splendor and beauty.\u201D\nHobson doesn\u2019t add or remove anything from the original GSV image, and only performs minor retouching. \u201CI probably spend 5-10 minutes retouching each image before it is finalized,\u201D he said. \u201CI only use HD street views, so the images are very sharp to begin with.\u201D\n2. Tom Jenkins: Stop-Motion Adventure\n\n\n\n\nSimilar to Hobson\u2019s \u201Cvirtual world of travel,\u201D Jenkins\u2019 stop-motion animation short, Address is Approximate, follows a lonely desk toy on a cross-country road trip. The three-minute GSV compilation was produced, animated, filmed, lit, edited and graded by Tom Jenkins, who joked to The Atlantic, \u201CI was the only crew member, which made for a depressing wrap party.\u201D\nThe Pixar-esque short has gone viral, generating 1.3 million views within eight days of its upload.\n3. Arcade Fire: Childhood Nostalgia\n\nLast year, rock band Arcade Fire, together with director Chris Milk and Google, launched an interactive video called The Wilderness Downtown. The promo for the band\u2019s song \"We Used to Wait\" was coded in HTML5 and designed to showcase the capabilities of Google\u2019s Chrome browser. \nThe experience starts by asking the viewer to enter her childhood address. The browser then splinters into multiple windows and produces images of the viewer\u2019s personal geography (if enough footage exists) from GSV and Maps. \nCutting-edge web elements combine to produce a surprisingly emotional experience. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Chris Milk said \u201CGoogle Maps and Street View embody this contradiction of cold high-tech that can be incredibly emotional when used in the right context.\u201D\n4. Doug Rickard: A Forgotten America\n\nWhereas the previous artists celebrate GSV\u2019s potential for virtual travel and emotional experience, the following collection showcases an incredibly different corner of society. \nPhotographer Doug Rickard\u2019s A New American Picture takes us to the impoverished areas of Detroit, Memphis and Oakland. The GSV photographs offer voyeuristic glimpses of derelict houses and untended roads, a forgotten America captured with mechanical indifference, from high and distant vantage points. Oftentimes people\u2019s faces are blurred (Google\u2019s solution to privacy issues). \n5. Mishka Henner: A Social Statement\n\nPhotographer Mishka Henner\u2019s No Man\u2019s Land series, self-published in book form, collects GSV screengrabs of roadside prostitutes in rural Italy. Henner decided to publish when he discovered online communities that use Street View to share information about the locations of sex workers \u2013 one of the darker uses of GSV. \nBONUS: 28 Strange Google Street View Sightings From Around the World\n\n\nTop 28 Google Streetview Sightings\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. Birdman\n\nWe're hoping this was for a kid's birthday party... In fact, this scene and others were staged by Street with a View as a prank on Google.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Giant Cadaver\n\nLooks like a giant version of the game Operation. That would explain the gaping holes -- but not much else.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Inflatable Doll\n\nDon't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. Car Crane\n\nThat's one way to tow someone.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. Fire\n\nHopefully the driver reported this.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6. Flying Saucer\n\nE.T. or space geek?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7. Giant Chicken\n\nWhere's the stuffing? From the Street with a View project.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8. The Man in White\n\nAt least he's not worried about UV rays.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. Renaissance Fair?\n\nYe olde street view. From the Street with a View project.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. Police Apprehension\n\nMaybe it was just a friendly hello.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. Flood\n\nAt least there are guard rails?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12. Wedding\n\nWe hope the Google driver caught the bouquet.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n13. Parking Spot\n\nSpider Man likes his own parking shed.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14. ET\n\nSome might say it's a lens flare. Some might argue it's a camera malfunction. It's the sunlight reflecting off the...lamp post...and a lens flare....and a camera malfunction, skeptics will yell!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n15. Crime in Progress\n\nMaybe the guy just forgot his keys. Or he's practicing for the free climbing contest. Hey, is that a lockpicking set dangling out of his pocket?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n16. Guy Leaving a Strip Club\n\nWe're gonna have to be honest here: the guy looks like he's merely paying for parking. But, that's a strip club behind him, and we will, of course, assume he just spent some sexy time with Mimi and Peaches. Is that a happy grin on his face? Sure it is.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n17. Guy Entering an Adult Book Store\n\nHey, it could have been worse. He could have been going out of a strip club, or something.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n18. Girls Sunbathing\n\nA couple of girls sunbathing on a lawn isn't exactly spectacular, but it's better than the blurry picture of the semi-naked babe on a truck.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n19. Cornelius and His Dog\n\nThere's a sad background story to this one. Read it here.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n20. The Internet Sucks\n\n\"The Internet sucks, come here for your erotic needs\", they say. Well, is Tera Patrick being all naked and naughty in there? Is she? Didn't think so.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n21. Semi-Naked Babe\n\nWe could open our web browser and find zillions of pictures of hot babes within seconds. In better quality. And more naked. But, there's something about finding a blurry pic of a semi-naked babe drawn on a truck on Google Maps that makes our heart race.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n22. Guy With No Head\n\nThis guy shouldn't complain, at least it's hard to identify him.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n23. Giant Pumpkin\n\nIt's a giant pumpkin. Right there in the field. Turn the image 180 degrees for a weird pink smoky...thing, too.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n24. He Sees Things We Cannot See\n\nThe cameras that Google is using for this aren't really working all that well.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n25. Your Face Called...\n\n...it wants its left side back.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n26. The Void\n\nAnd to your left, you can see the endless void that consumes all life. Please stick to the right side of the street.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n27. The Laws are There to Be Broken\n\nWell, at least he's not speeding by much.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n28. The Woz\n\nStreet named after Steve Wozniak.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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