Google ‘Street View’ picks up panoramas of Bainbridge Island

Candid Camera it's not. A Google "Street View" vehicle was making the rounds across Bainbridge Tuesday, collecting footage for the online giant's popular panoramic street scene function on Google Maps.

Candid Camera it’s not.

A Google “Street View” vehicle was making the rounds across Bainbridge Tuesday, collecting footage for the online giant’s popular panoramic street scene function on Google Maps.

The Google car is hard to miss. It’s emblazoned with a Google Maps logo on the side, a large black platform that holds a 360-degree camera (which resembles a large red soccer ball), California license plates, and a graphic wrap on the vehicle that shows the iconic Google map figure and green location pointer.

The vehicle cruised into the parking lot of Bainbridge Island City Hall at lunchtime Tuesday, then looped past Bainbridge Performing Arts before exiting onto Madison Avenue and continuing south into downtown Winslow.

Google Street Views were started in the U.S. in May 2007, and company officials estimate that more than 5 million miles of roads in 39 countries have been photographed.

Bainbridge has been pretty popular with Google lately.

Last week, Bainbridge Island was awarded Google’s eCity for the state of Washington given its high online presence.