Google Street View has changed the way that people interact with online maps as well as real cities. Controversial and illicit images as well as strange photographic glitches have only heightened the public’s fascination with this interactive panoramic mapping system. The now-infamous Google Street View van has captured embarrassing moments, created accidental celebrities and documented interesting urban changes over time. The following images illustrate this variety.

Lurkers and Gawkers: Google Street View has become notorious for showing people at moments they might rather not have preserved online. The two men above are at least fortunate enough not to be showing their face to the camera. Another individual caught in a compromising situation was not so lucky.

Accidental Celebrities: Some Google Street View pictures show individuals who are apparently aware of (or who even pose for) the Street View camera van. Many images, such as those above, have been widely circulated on the internet – making their subjects into a form of impromptu or accidental celebrity.

Controversial Images: A lot of the more popular Google Street View images in public circulation involve celebrities, from ‘real life’ or from their actions caught on camera. However, while it is apparently true that a knife-sharpening van was photographed outside of OJ Simpson’s house, the individual show in the lower image (despite popular rumors) was simply fixing his bicycle.

Mysterious Street View Van: While it is not provable either way, the above image seems to suggest that the Street View van may have callously knocked over a few flimsy roadblocks. Perhaps they were worried about disrupting the images they were capturing? The Street View van itself has been caught on film a few times.

Changes Over Time: One of the interesting aspects of Google Street View is the impressive way in which it documents cities in time, and their changes over time. The above set of images shows a building under construction, but if a user shifts perspective in Street View the picture shows the finished renovation.

More Google Street View Images: The number of popular images has grown steadily as Google Street View has spread from cities like San Francisco and New York City to Los Angeles and Houston. A number of sites feature additional Google Street View pictures, including Wired: Threat Level and StreetViewFun. More strange splicings and as well as sexy and illicit images can also be found in our archives.

With so much focus on Google Street View privacy issues, many people have missed a whole subset of non-controversial but much more strange Street View images. Accidental recombinations and distortions on Street View images have resulted in something that could be mistaken for an art form.

Achitectural Splices: many of the most interesting images occur where two geomtries mix incorrectly. The result, however, almost suggests a hidden layer to the urban environment. The above Google Street View image is reminiscent of a Dada painting or conceptual urban sketch.

End of the World: when the Google Street View van finds a border the infill could be many things – blue sky, white nothingness or some ambient color. Instead, a black void is inserted, suggesting space or a vacuum on the other side. This small decision makes a big difference.

Surreal Subtractions: some things get cut off in the splicing process, resulting in humorous but creepy omissions such as the head of the above individual. Perhaps the creeping white void to the left of the image is approaching to erase him? Who knows!

High Contrasts: the subjectivity of photography in images like those above, where different lense angles and lighting conditions create a radical contrast between parts. This is a good reminder that any view is necessarily subjective, and the illusion of actual reality is relative.

Hybrid Objects: sometimes the Google Street View splicing results in a mutant object or vehicle that seems almost but not quite believable. These stir the imagination, though they are clearly the result of programmatic errors. Is this accidental graphic artistry, or just an unfortunate computer glitch? That, of course, is up to the viewer. Collections of surreal Google Street View mistakes have appeared on Flickr and can be voted on at sites like MapMole.

If you thought the grainy satellite images of naked sunbathers from Google Earth were a borderline invasion of privacy, Google Street View takes things to a whole new level. This remarkable feature allows users to take virtual 360-degree panaromic walk-through tours of a city – starting with San Francisco, of course. However, it has already captured people in a number of compromising situations, from scantily-clad sunbathers and unfortunate individuals going into and out of sex stores to apparent home break-ins.

On one level, this tool is obviously nifty. You could easy imagine wandering the virtual streets of San Francisco for hours. Still, your attitude might change pretty quickly if the scary-looking Google Street View Van caught you with your pants down (yes, literally – but the image has been taken down) or embarrassed others we knew. Already someone is asking Google to take down an image of her house cat – if Google complies, what could it mean but the end of this tool?

Meanwhile, you can vote on a continually-updated collection of the hottest, strangest and silliest Google Street View shots. Wired has set up a Digg/Reddit-like system for users to submit and rate the best images. If that doesn’t bring out any number of complaints from unintentional ‘Street View community members’ it’s hard to say what will! Meanwhile, here is their goofy tutorial for those of you who haven’t started exploring Google Street View yet.