Google Street View car feeds concerns about image of Finland abroad

April may not be the cruellest month, but it's pretty darned ugly

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What does a Finn think when he or she sees an elephant?
      ”I wonder what the elephant thinks about me.”
     
Apparently, the old joke, highlighting Finnish concerns about how the world sees the place and its creatures, continues to be topical.
      The elephant of this spring is a Google Street View car, a moving vehicle with cameras pointed in all directions on the roof.
      The online service Google has embarked on a project to photograph all main urban streets in Finland. The survey is for Google’s map service, and it has already been implemented in a number of countries.
     
A debate on the pages of the online edition of Helsingin Sanomat, hs.fi, seems to concentrate on the question of whether the image of Finland given by the Google photos will be too bad, as the Finnish surroundings are not exactly at their best at this time of year.
      The country is still covered by sand, with dust particles flying around, as the snow has just melted off the ground, and the trees have not yet come into leaf.
      Helsingin Sanomat reported on Thursday on the Google car, which had been seen at least in Espoo this week.
      In the debate on hs.fi, some people complained about the timing of the project.
      A couple of commentators claimed that the Google pictures are likely to affect foreign tourists’ travel choices.
     
”Who would like to travel to Finland, if the image of the country given by these photos is grey and gloomy?” asks a person behind the pseudonym Jux.
      ”Much too dirty and miserable. In terms of tourism, it is a suicide to show the world what kind of a dunghill Helsinki is in March-April”, charges another writer under the name Kesis.
      Kesis thinks that even a snowy winter could be more favourable for such a photo project.
      At present, there are many nuisances, including ”dead lawns”, ”leaves from last autumn”, and ”the sand spread on icy streets and roads in wintertime”.
      Poster Nolo addressed Petri Kokko, the Country Manager of Google Finland:
      ”Seriously now, Petri Kokko, don’t you understand the huge damage you are likely to cause to your country by having the streets photographed during the ugliest season of the year?”
     
Petri Kokko, what kind of feedback has Google Finland received relating to the moving vehicle with the cameras mounted on the roof?
      ”The feedback has been 99% positive. For example, we have received proposals for suitable targets for photographs”, says Kokko.
     
Nevertheless, the concerns about the image of Finland have also reached Google.
      Kokko says that some people have asked whether it would be better to wait until shrubs and plants have appeared along roadsides.
      Giving some consolation, Petri Kokko says that the photographing project that was launched in Finland at the beginning of April will take several months, and some photos with flowers will also be taken.
     
The typically Finnish realistic attitude could also be found among the comments on hs.fi.
      JP writes:
      ”Unfortunately, the weather in Finland is grey and the streets are dirty almost all year round. No proper winter any more, the 'summer' lasts only for one month, and in the meantime, everything is mud and slush!”
      ”This is the real image of Finland. Live with it”.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Google Maps project raises privacy concerns in Finland (16.4.2009)

See also:
  Swedish schoolbooks give pessimistic image of Finland (7.12.2005)

Links:
  Google Street View (Wikipedia)
  Deceptive Cadence blog: "Google Street View is going to look like sh*t in Helsinki", 31.3.2009
  Google Maps, Finland

Helsingin Sanomat