Google Stalk View: Street View nosiness

Report suggests we love to check out celebrities' houses

25 August 2010 11:00 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

Google Street View has turned us into a nation of stalkers. (How Daily Mail does that sound?). That is, according to results of a survey commissioned by Central Scotland Joinery, which state that over a third of Brits have used the service to look at the homes of celebrities.

The most common house to check out was the big white one where Barack Obama lives in Washington, with 19 per cent of these respondents stating that they had checked that out, whilst Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion came in second with 17 per cent.

Making up the top 5 is Steve Jobs' gaff in California, Beckingham Palace in Hertfordshire and Simon Cowell's crib in Beverly Hills.

Now, we're not sure there is a concrete definition of the term “stalking” but looking up an address on Google Street View seems a bit tame for us.

We mean, when Pocket-lint got its restraining order over Samantha Janus (in her Game On days) we had to put some real effort in to be labelled a stalker.

We spent hours in bushes outside her house drinking Cup-a-Soup in the wind and rain, and not to mention the absolute fortune we spent on Boots disposable cameras.

Kids these days have got it so easy.

Do you check out celebs' homes on Google Street View? If so, whose? And, most importantly, why?

Full tags

Google Maps, Software, Google, Online