Want to take a virtual stroll down memory lane? Get nosy in a new neighborhood? Walk along a street 2,000 miles away without leaving your computer?

Google Street View, a 360-degree photomapping program that launched three years ago with a handful of metropolitan cities, has expanded to include panoramic imagery of every public street in Hall County and nearly every hamlet in Georgia, from Abbeville to Zebulon.

With a few keystrokes and clicks of a mouse, users can find a fairly current image of a childhood home or old school, provided they're still standing. With an address of an unfamiliar location in hand, folks can see where they're going before they leave the house.

It's a program that's been met mostly with gee-whiz awe by non-tech types and a smattering of trepidation for those with privacy concerns. But Google Street View and programs like it are part of progress in an increasingly wired and interconnected world, experts say.

"All of this geospatial technology is one of the megatrends of the 21st century," said J.B. Sharma, a professor of physics and remote sensing at Gainesville State College who teaches courses in Geographic Information Systems. "It has integrated itself into the fabric of our lives."

Sharma noted that Google and Microsoft have been busy buying up companies that manufacture the specialized photogrammetric cameras used for programs like street view, "because everyone wants dibs on this data."

In the future, Sharma said, you will not only be able to walk down a street on your computer, but turn to a store, walk in, and peruse the aisles for bargains.

"Soon enough, this will be even more ubiquitous," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union voiced privacy concerns soon after Google Street View mapped its first five metropolitan cities in May 2007. The panoramic views, which are recorded by cars with globe-shaped, roof-mounted cameras, at times capture images of people engaged in daily life. Some of the more embarrassing or humorous images captured by Street View have made their way onto private Web sites.

"Preserving anonymity on the public streets is not a joke," said the ACLU's technology and civil liberties policy director, Nicole Ozer. "People have a right to go to a sensitive doctor's appointment, hug a friend on a street corner, walk by the window inside their house, or anonymously participate in a political rally without having to worry that their activities will be put up on the Internet as the unfortunate byproduct of a new Google tool."

Google has responded to concerns by using "blurring" technology to obscure faces and has a procedure for requesting that images be taken down.

But the company points out that Google Street View is recorded on public property.

"The imagery is no different from what a person can readily see or capture walking down the street," company spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz said in an e-mailed statement.

Hurowitz said in the statement that Google makes it easy for users to have photos of themselves, their children or their houses "completely removed from the product, even where the images have already been blurred."

Zac Miller, a senior GIS student at Gainesville State College, recounted how his Army base at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, was on Google Street View for about two weeks.

"The Army complained about it," Miller said. "They didn't like it."

At the time, Miller said, street access to the secure base only required a driver's license, so a Google camera car operator simply drove throughout the base taking pictures. But after getting pressure from the Department of Defense about security concerns, Google took down the street view. The birds-eye satellite imagery of Fort Sam Houston on the Google Earth program is still available.

Miller said Google Street View "doesn't bother me. It's the same thing anyone could see driving down the road. It's not like it's looking through walls."

"I think it's pretty interesting," said Gainesville State College student Brian Avent. "It can be helpful if you're looking for something and you're unfamiliar with an area."

Avent said some new technologies, like an iPhone application that can tell you where your friends are located if they carry devices with Global Positioning Systems, can tread a "fine line" of privacy issues.

"It definitely could have some bad applications," Avent said. "But overall I think it's a good thing."

Sharma believes geodata will be "one of the defining tools of the 21st century."

Geospatial technology, along with biotechnology and nanotechnology, are expected to see exponential job growth, he said.

"Increasingly, all three of these areas pervade all aspects of our lives," he said. "It's just now these kinds of technical things are gradually starting to surface in the public consciousness. People are becoming more aware of them and becoming more educated in how to use these tools to enrich their lives."

Sharma said people should get used to programs like Google Street View, because they're here to stay.

"These things are inevitable, and we need to learn to live with them and learn how to use them for our advantage and how to minimize any possible harm that might come from their use," he said. "These are things we have to negotiate as a society as we move on."