Google's controversial Street View mapping service has been launched in the UK, two years after it was first rolled out in the US. The service, which displays 360-degree photos of streets, taken from a roaming camera car has been launched in 25 British cities including Edinbrugh, London, Belfast and Manchester. Smaller cities such as Bradford, Cambridge and Oxford will also be added.
Users can go to maps.google.co.uk, zoom in on one of the cities and drag the Street View icon onto a street to view a 360-degree image. Users can then travel virtually along the street as the camera car has captured images every 5-10 metres apart.
According to the Sky News Twitter feed - live from Google's Press Conference, Google claims that it took over a year to capture tens of millions of images across 22,000 miles of UK street; however, they claim that it was the British weather that delayed the launch of the service as the cameras are rendered useless by rain and snow.
The service has been faced with widespread controversy from civil rights groups claiming that it is a gross invasion of privacy. However, Google say that Street View features technology blurs car license plates and faces. Users are also able to contact Google and request that they remove pictures of themselves, their car or house if they object to it.
Google has photographed most streets that the infamous Street View car could drive down, excluding pictures of Downing Street and some parts of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
