Google Street View or Google Spy?

Google's "Street View Van."

Google Street View of 7th Ave. and West 43 St., NYC.

From today's Slate, "Google Spy: Zooming in on neighbors, nose-pickers, and sunbathers with Google Street View,"

As Google grows older, it's becoming that kid who brings an M-80 to the neighborhood barbecue. While everyone else is goofing off with sparklers, Google blows up a trash can and freaks out the entire block.

The latest explosion is Google Street View. The free-sushi-eating Googleheads dreamed up the idea to send a camera-equipped van (see picture above) to take 360-degree shots around the streets of San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Denver, and Miami. Cool, right? Then the service launched last Tuesday, and Mary Kalin-Casey discovered that she could see her cat Monty in the window of her apartment. If you zoom in, you can tell that Monty is a tabby.

Check out Manhattan here with Google Street View, starting in Times Square.