German Google Street View concerns

Why it has taken me so long to review New York Times articles, I do not know.  My last post was the first time I had really looked into reviewing they way journalists from this reputable publisher constructed their articles and I wish that I had done it sooner.  Today I am reviewing an article by Kevin O'Brien that focuses on the German privacy concerns around Google Street view and the fact that reportedly hundreds of thousands of Germans have requested that their property not be shown in Google Street view.

The journalist very clearly and succinctly sets the story up in the first paragraph, clearly outlining the location of the story, who is involved, what the issue is and why it may be a problem.  A commonly-seen method is to begin the article with the location followed by the beginning of the story, as is done here:  "BERLIN - Google on Friday...."  I think this is very effective in setting up the beginning of an article in the simplest, most succinct manner.

The layout itself is very clean (as can be seen in the screenshot to the right) and the article is void of banner ads, which makes for an excellent user experience for the reader.  Share functionality is easily accessible, thus providing an easy opportunity to spread the story.

One element I did want to point out was the hyperlink in the first paragraph on the word "Google".  My initial thought when I first saw this was "why would you hyperlink this word?  Everyone knows who Google is.  Seems like a pointless exercise".  However, upon clicking the link, I was taken to another New York Times article within the business section of the paper giving a full history, description and related news items about Google.  I think this is a very clever example of internal linking within one's own site, which greatly assists SEO.  It helps Google (from a search point of view) to see the relevance of your content and is thus able to rank the page accordingly.  Such tactics would be much easier for a paper such as the New York Times, which is overflowing with rich and varied content, however would be much more difficult for a small local paper with limited content.

The journalist presents a very objective story, adequately gathering their information from a wide range of sources:
- Google spokes people in Germany
- Germany's consumer protection minister
- German state data protection supervisors.
These are all very authentic, authoritative sources that add credibility to the article.

I do also think this is a particularly relevant and newsworthy story due to the large amount of hype in the media lately about Street view.  There has been much public backlash as a result of Street View in Brazil showing some pretty horrendous street crime - child drug users and dead bodies among things.  Privacy on the internet is something that I've looked at a number of times during this assessment.  I think it's one of the greatest issues with the ever-expanding reach of social networking and online media and one that I think we will see discussed for many more years to come.