>"Then there is also the question of how much baby sitting / bureaucracy / micro management can a company like Google should/could afford."
This wasn't a small side project.
Streetview is a major initiative which required the sustained deployment of significant resources on a worldwide scale and an vast ongoing commitment to the bandwidth necessary to serve the data collected.
Yes, but for any company with multiple major initiatives the smarter thing to do is to decentralize the decision making and let the individuals handle it at the initiative level. Otherwise you end up with heavy middle management that becomes hindrance and liability for the most part.
This wasn't a small side project.
Streetview is a major initiative which required the sustained deployment of significant resources on a worldwide scale and an vast ongoing commitment to the bandwidth necessary to serve the data collected.