Google Maps Street View Camera car Spotted on Sammamish Street - Working, of Course

Sammamish residents might see some new images of their homes, lawns and front yards on Google's Maps Street View program in the near future.

The reason: Sammamish Patch spotted the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's green-and-white map mobile rolling along on city pavement on Wednesday around 3 p.m., just near .

From a distance, the colorful car looked like the type used by . Then, on closer inspection, Sammamish Patch thought it might be a promotional vehicle, possibly used by Disney to advertise a new motion picture or product.

The camera pod mounted on top of the Google mobile could have been ideal to put a Mickey Mouse head to get the word out about a new product. Finally, though, when Google's white letters were spotted against the green paint, well, everything became clear. 

The driver was kind enough to stop when asked. Of course, he was on duty. So, too, were the cameras, which sat some feet on top of the car, in a blue sphere-like contraption. It kind of looked like the rotating camera pod mounted on the bottom of helicopters used by TV news stations.

But, as the driver noted, the 15 cameras that he was motoring around town were taking still images.

In hindsight, were the cameras taking images of Sammamish Patch talking to Google Maps Street View? That would be a person-to-person conversation, by the way.

Who knows?

Sammamish Patch had a digital camera - albeit not as many as the Google map car - and was snapping away. In full disclosure, Sammamish Patch also expressed fascination with the car, all those cameras and what Google does with its technology.

Certainly, there are people who dislike what the company is doing - rolling by, taking photos and putting them online. There are concerns of invading privacy. Still, there are others who use the program to see their houses, from as many angles as possible, and to see which neighbor was in his or her yard when the camera mobile passed.

If you click on Google Maps Street View, you can take an up-close tour of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Colosseum in Rome, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.

The driver, for his part, talked a bit about the opposite end of the fascination spectrum. He said there are people who have expressed their displeasure with the cameras and the online mapping system by making a gesture with a very specific part of their hand.

With that, he turned around and continued down the city street on the sunny day.