Online crime maps for all streets in England and Wales

Crime Maps Will Make Police More Accountable

Detailed crime maps for England and Wales are being published by the Home Office - the first time anywhere in the world such information has been released.
(link via Sky News)

Type in your postcode at http://www.police.uk and find out what crime or antisocial behaviour has happened on your street.

Google launches Street View in UK

Google Street View launches in UK Google's 'Street View' service, which gives users the ability to take a virtual tour of cities mapped from thousands of specially-taken photographs, has launched today in the UK. The service, which will initially launch in 25 British cities including Manchester, London and Belfast, was originally unveiled in May 2007, and has since been expanded to nine countries, including Japan, Australia, France and Spain, as well as the US where it launched. And although I dislike Street View because of privacy worries, I think this sounds like a fun challenge: As a cheeky sidenote to the launch, Google have hidden popular children's book character Wally from Martin Handford's Where's Wally series somewhere in today's release, challenging users of the site to find the forgetful traveller, who is wearing his trademark jumper, walking stick and red and white striped bobble hat. (link via independent.co.uk) What do you think about Street View? Do you think Street View is an invasion of privacy, or a fun and useful navigational tool? I will admit it can probably be very useful and also quite a bit of fun to take a virtual tour of just about any location. The privacy issue is a valid one however. I can see why people worry (myself included) about their privacy being invaded even though Google claims they have employed special techniques to obscure faces and number-plates in the images. Cities currently covered by Street View UK: London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Bradford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield, Nottingham, Derby, Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Swansea, York, Newcastle, Dundee, Southampton, Norwich and Scunthorpe. Walk through the UK's streets with Street View Update 20 Mar 2009: Where’s Wally found in London Internet sleuths have uncovered one of the great mysteries of Google Street View -- the location of children’s character Wally, from the Where’s Wally? series. (link via telegraph.co.uk) That was fast!