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Google has started a pilot project allowing the public to look inside shops and other businesses found on its maps. The feature is an extension of the firm's Street View technology, which already lets users view 360-degree exterior images. The existing service prompted some privacy complaints from people who claimed the technology was intrusive.

Google is expanding its Street View service into some of the world's most remote places. It will photograph the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers of northwest Brazil in partnership with charity Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS). Google will train local people to collect images, and will leave behind equipment so work continues long-term.

Users of Google Map links for their websites will be charged for heavy usage of the service, it has been revealed. From 1 January 2012, Google will charge for the Google Maps API service when more than the limit of 25,000 map "hits" are made in a day. Websites, especially travel firms, use Google Maps to link customers to a view of the destinations they inquire about. Google is rumoured to be charging $4 per 1,000 views in excess of the limit.

Google has put online some of the great art museums of the world. It has copied these museum's art collections. It also use it Street View approach use to create video tours of the associated museums. The site is located at -- http://www.googleartproject.com/

jokes going "Viral" at the turn of the century

Google has hit out at state attempts to clamp down on the internet by revealing governments' requests to remove data from the web and get information about users. Tonight it released a web page with a map showing country by country where it has had government requests or court orders to remove content from the YouTube video service or its search results, or to provide details about users of its services.

The US Department of Justice this week released slides from a presentation deck titled Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites. The document was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The DoJ presentation describes Facebook as much more co-operative with law enforcement requests for user information than Twitter and MySpace are. Update: Facebook's Barry Schnitt contests this interpretation of the document, says the company is resistant to illegitimate government requests for user information and offers one example of that resistance in a comment posted below. The document also explains to officers what the advantages of going undercover on social networking sites are. The EFF posted IRS training documents for using various internet tools as well, including Google Street View, but those were much tamer than the Justice file.