• Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 10:46 AM

Google has begun incorporating street-level photos from Los Angeles, San Diego and some Orange County cities into its Google Maps program. The additions expanded an online service that thrilled some digital-map buffs and freaked out privacy advocates when it launched in May in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York and three other cities. The photos can help people scout out places they plan to visit. But when Google's camera shutters click, they capture more than buildings.

Within hours of the first release, bloggers had found and posted photographs -- which are often sharp enough to identify the people in them -- at vulnerable moments: students sunbathing in bikinis, a man walking into an adult bookstore. In Los Angeles, it could create a new sport: celebrity hunting on Google Maps.

The so-called Street View program is part of Google's effort to organize all the world's information. Google users can find the photos by entering addresses into maps.google.com, then clicking on the "Street View" button. It's also a source of endless amusement for some Web surfers. After Street View started, Web sites sprouted up that were devoted to posting the most embarrassing or interesting details. But privacy lawyers say the pictures are perfectly legal.

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