Google has officially launched Street View in the UK. The service currently covers major cities such as Birmingham, Edinburgh and London, although the Google camera van has been seen in small towns and villages across the country (and here in Forres!) which will greatly extend its reach in populated areas.
Google Street View provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street level views and can be accessed by via Google Maps and Google Earth. As the services are rolled out, it will provide an important additional resource for urban Screen Agencies and film makers – offering high resolution photography of frontages and streets from almost every town in the UK. Streetview can also be integrated, where available, with web brochures produced by the MovieSite system.
A wonderul tool, sadly not one part of our area is covered by it at the present time!
Yes, it’ll take a while to roll out, unfortunately. I believe there’s a combination of manual and automated processes required to blur number plates and faces which mostly work, with the possible exception of drunks in Soho!
The camera van was definitely all round Forres, so I’d imagine the pics will show up in the next few weeks / months.
It’s good to see that Street View has finally made it to Inverness! (Although the photographs appear to be 3 years old. Quite a backlog they have there!)