Is it legal?

This post is inspired by a post over at the Phoblographer. When is a property release form required if you shoot places like a barn?

I am not a lawyer but I am thinking from a logic point of view. If you are standing on a public street, I think you should be able to legally take a photo of anything within your view without a property release form (assuming no people are in the shot).  My logic actually comes from Google. The Google street view camera has taken photos of almost every street, house, building and barn in America and no release forms have been signed. Clearly Google has deep pockets but some legal ground must exist in what they are doing.

So until I hear otherwise, I am taking the same approach. If I can see it from the street and I am not standing on private property then I should be able to safely take a photo of it. If a property owner asked me to stop, of course I would.

What are your thoughts?