Hillsville residents aren't likely to see Google's camera equipped car roll through anytime soon, but fortunately I will not be denied my own personal Street View fun.
Google is, of course, developing a huge database of what America looks like through the windshields of passing vehicles going down everything from major arteries to cookie cutter subdivision roads.
The most popular application of this survey so far seems to consist of an online freakshow.
Websites and YouTube videos take advantage of the random happenstance that the Google cars pass, which ranges from pedestrians trying to hide from being digitally immortalized, girls in revealing outfits, skaters face-planting, couples making out and, not surprisingly, vehicle accidents.
I do respect the art project in Pittsburgh that CNET reported on that features a marching band and joggers and more going through an alley there.
I imagine the Google driver grinning, happy at the break in routine, but then again he could have been annoyed at the social engineering of it all.
My favorite Street View moment is much more personal, and actually quite mundane.
But it just so happened that the car with the camera array past my parent's house just in time to document my dad leaning over to pick up a probably miniscule piece of debris out of his driveway, at the place where I spent my teenaged years down a nondescript cul de sac in a medium sized city.
It's pixelated and low quality and not likely to draw any laughs from the Street View sites — even with their collectively low entertainment bar — but it's a little, nostalgic slice of home on the Interwebs to me.
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