As you probably know by now, Google has immediately yielded to the Military and took down panoramic pictures of military bases which are open to the public. One of the things the Pentagon was most concerned about was that the pictures showed the exact positions of all the guards, entrance and exits out of the buildings, and other details on military installations. At the core of the issue were Street View panoramic photos of the Ft. Sam Houston in Texas.

Google responded to the accusations by saying they have never taken images or video shoots without authorization. The Street View car, equipped with a camera that takes ground images of different objectives, was granted access inside the military base.

Google complied with the demands after being contacted by the military, spokesman Larry Yu confirmed. At the same time, he said it is against Google’s policy to take pictures inside the base, as Street View is about images taken from public streets, adding that they were taken by mistake in this case. At issue were five bases photographed by Google teams, as well as 10 off-base military facilities.

It was quite interesting to follow the reactions by journalists, bloggers and forum posters these days over this issue. It seems that most people have sided with Google and the U.S. Military in thinking that it's perfectly normal that the military bases should be off limits from online imaging systems.

The question is how does this help? Would this at least slow down a potential terrorist? Well, no, not really. Anyone with an intention to plan an attack has plenty of information readily available, such as the map posted on the Ft. Sam Houston's website. Or satellite photos on Google Maps and elsewhere. How about going in and taking their own pictures?

The Military has brought up an entirely nonsensical issue. First of all, as many have pointed out, the primary targets for terrorist inside the United States are civilian, not military bases which are much harder to attack and the casualties would be far fewer than in a crowded civilian area. Then, any information you could get through Google would be easily available at the site itself or through other online tools. There are ways to counter terrorism, but taking down pics of military bases in the United States isn’t it.

Street View is a feature Google added to Google maps in 2007, which provides panoramic views in cities across the United States from ground level. For the time being, the service works only in the U.S.