While Google continues to expand its grasp on the internet with a new browser and index the world at large by archiving old newspapers online, it's easy to forget that it's also quietly getting a good picture of the UK. The Google Street View cars are still trundling about, mapping the country bit by bit.
Despite the task being behind schedule due to bad weather, cars are still being spotted in York, Bristol, Sheffield and Edinburgh. Another one of the most recent sightings, and snaps of, a Google car was shot in Glasgow, and shows what appears to be cheerful Google driver despite the drizzle.
The Google car's equipment can only scan when the sky is not overcast and it's not raining. So, when the weather turns bad, the hardware has to be covered - presumably a recurring problem for the team in the rainy streets of Scotland.
The task may be taking a little longer than first anticipated, but that only seems to have encouraged interest from the public at large. There is even a group on flickr dedicated to the tech filled cars. York and Sheffield are the most popular areas on the group at the moment, and some happy snappers have even managed to capture photos of the drivers having a little meet-up for a chat.
Rampant privacy concerns seem to have died down recently, possibly due to public acceptance of the face blurring technology that Google promises to apply. Maybe the UK will see a reprieve from what appears to be an early onset of winter, and if so we can expect to see the streets of Glasgow online in all their glory at the hands of Google sooner rather than later.
