The Google Car Effect

"Man is rated the highest animal, at least among all animals who returned the questionnaire."

~Robert Brault

If you see a camera, what do you do?


Let us say, hypothetically, that you are walking down the street in your city. You suddenly see a news reporter from a local TV station (gosh that sounds archaic when I read it--are their still "local TV stations?") giving a report in front of a cameraman.

What do you do?

Some people make a concerted effort to NOT move in the view of the camera.

Some people make a concerted effort to MOON the camera, or do something idiotic to be noticed. (For reference, I fall in the middle somewhere, but look idiotic anyway.) This behavior is deeply rooted in us all, and regardless of the media, will surface to some degree. Streakers at football games (that's soccer to us in the US), the crowd outside of the morning TV news show, it is always happening. But now, there is a new phenomenon.

Google Street View.

The newest craze is to get your picture in the google street view display. For example, my canadian friend Marc took the picture of the google car you see at the beginning of this post. At the same time, it was taking this picture of him:

Pic of Marc by Google

That was just an accident. But it's becoming a sort of contest.

"Man drops his pants to moon Google streetview car from his own front porch"
http://bit.ly/5ocGpw
http://buzzup.com/jga6


So far, one of the best I can find is this:

@Bestguitars on twitter proclaimed:
"I successfully predicted where the google car would go next "
http://ff.im/-ckIvf (click on the quote about the google car)
http://buzzup.com/jfmq


So, the next time you see a regular looking car with a giant 360 action camera mounted on top, do something silly. You might be famous.