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Google expands SA Street View

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 14 Jul 2011

Google announced this week the latest expansion to Street View, and what it calls its “biggest update yet”.

The expansion includes new imagery for 13 established Street View countries, including SA.

According the Google Africa blog, a wide array of imagery is now available for Limpopo, Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, North West, and Mpumalanga.

The southern most tip of the continent has also been added to Street View, with 360-degree imagery of the Cape Agulhus area - where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.

Users can now also take a virtual drive through the West Coast National Park, or visit Port Edward and Saldanha Bay.

The expansion of Street View also includes some of SA's urban centres, such as Polokwane, Mokopane, Harrismith and even Mthatha.

Other countries included in the expansion are: Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Romania, Taiwan, Japan, the US and the UK.

Street View was added to Google Maps in the US in 2007, but only reached SA last year in time for the World Cup.

The project uses a fleet of specially adapted Toyota Prius vehicles, which use nine directional cameras for 360-degree street-level views. Google trikes are used for areas that cannot be captured by the larger vehicles.

SA is currently the only African country with Street View imagery, but Google plans to expand its African coverage by 2015.

Internationally, Google's Street View has come under fire for privacy concerns. The search giant does, however, blur out people's faces and number plates on any captured in Street View.

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