Google Street View hits Thailand

For the first time, Google is exposing gorgeous, hedonistic and possibly even embarrassing photos of people, beaches, entertainment zones, hotels, homes, temples and other scenes in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket via its Street View maps.

Anyone in the world can go online and, for free, gawk at Google's pictures, which are "digitally stitched" together to offer a movable journey through Thailand's three famous tourism hotspots -- including countless shots of Thais and foreigners unaware they've been photographed.

Google hopes its newest Street View portal will emphasize the paradises and delights of Thailand, and lure more tourists to enjoy the lusciousness this Southeast Asian tropical land offers.

"We drove Phuket, Chiang Mai and Greater Bangkok and we got 95 percent of those areas, and have images that are 360-degree panoramas," says David Marx, global communications and public affairs manager for Google Asia Pacific.

"Tourists within Thailand and outside of Thailand can use this as kind of a tool to plan their trips and to virtually explore Thailand."

Voyeurs hoping to recognize drunken men cavorting with bikini-clad women in red-light districts in Bangkok and elsewhere should realize Street View has limitations. "Basically, when we worked with the Tourism Authority of Thailand before we even started driving, the objective for us was how are we going to use the technology we have for Street View to promote tourism and to find great images of Thailand to share with the rest of the world," says Amy Kunrojpanya, head of communications and public affairs for Google in Thailand.

"There are some of the more colorful nightlife areas of Thailand. We are driving during the daytime, so I think that is probably one point as well, I would say, that helps. You get everyday life. You see the guys who are making fried chicken on the side of the road. You can see people eating mangos and sticky rice."

For anyone still worried about their escapades being documented for the world to see, Google provides two ways to protect reputations. "We automatically blur faces and license plates. All faces," says Marx.

In addition, each photo also has a clickable "report a problem" button so viewers can express any concerns to Google. That may help keeps people from being identified on websites. Urban scenes in Street View's 34 other countries have also included industrial wastelands, slums, mansions, ruins, medieval lanes, buildings on fire, shopping malls and fabulous tourist attractions.

Street View has on occasion displayed some surprising pictures, such as the ones mischievously collected on the website 9-eyes.com, showing people armed with weapons, prostituting themselves, displaying their bare buttocks, grappling with animals, intoxicated, or sprawled dead surrounded by emergency workers.

"A Frenchman is suing Google for making him the laughing stock of his village after the firm's Street View service put on the Internet a picture of him urinating in his garden," Agence-France Presse reported on March 1. Google's lawyer, Christophe Bigot, said the lawsuit was "implausible."

Although Google blurred his face, the man claims he became known in his small town so he filed a suit for infringement of privacy in a court in Angiers, the French news agency said.