In Europe, Google Street View began on 2 July 2008 with the route of Tour de France being covered in parts of France and Italy. The service has since expanded to many European countries, while at the same time has been controversial in some countries due to laws and privacy concerns.
Google's Street View Camera car (Opel Astra) in Geneva, Switzerland, in March 2009.Google Street View camera spotted in Thorpe (near Dovedale) Peak District.Google Street View car Opel AstraThurles, County Tipperary, IrelandGoogle Maps Camera Car on a narrow road in the wine region of Langhe, Italy
Following the introduction of Street View in the United States, there was talk of bringing the feature to Europe as well, but there were concerns over the legality of the feature due to stricter laws in most European countries than those of the United States regarding photography.[2]
The first views anywhere outside the United States were introduced on July 2, 2008, when the Tour de France route was added. Nineteen camera icons, each indicating part of a French city or town and Cuneo, Italy, were included.
On October 14, 2008, camera icons were introduced in six French cities, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris and Toulouse. At the same time, all other icons that had been introduced in France on July 2, as well as the one in Cuneo, Italy, were removed, representing the first time in Street View's history that a camera icon that once marked a place was removed. However, the amount of coverage that France had since July 2 was not diminished.
On March 18, 2009, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were added. In the case of Great Britain, only major centres were uploaded and even coverage of those city centres was incomplete. For example, Edinburgh was missing Street View images of two of its key thoroughfares: Princes Street and the Royal Mile (although portions of both were visible from adjoining streets that had been imaged).
In May 2009, Google Germany released a list of German cities that were to be scanned or rescanned in May and June 2009.[3]
On October 7, 2009, parts of the Czech Republic were added.
On November 9, 2009, more locations in the Netherlands and Spain were added.
On December 2, 2009, more locations in France and Italy were added as well as various tourist sites in England.
On January 20, 2010, Sweden and Denmark were added, as well as more locations in the United Kingdom, Italy (7 regions are fully covered), Portugal, the Czech Republic (mostly Prague), and the Netherlands.
On February 9, 2010, Norway and Finland were added, with coverage of much of southern Norway and most of Finland. Imagery was updated for parts of the UK as well.
On March 11, 2010, 95% of the United Kingdom's roads, both rural and urban, covering a total of approximately 238,000 miles, were added. More locations in the Netherlands were also added.
In May 2010, Google Street View Cars and Trikes were seen in Croatian cities and towns such as Pula, Split, Dubrovnik, and the capital, Zagreb.[citation needed] This brings a Street View September dream to both Croatia and Andorra available.
In August 2010, Google Street View Cars were photographing Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney as well as Slovakia.[5] Also, ten Street View cars were delivered to the Latvian capital Riga.[6]
On September 30, 2010, the Republic of Ireland was added.
On December 8, 2010, parts of Romania were added. More locations in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway were also added.
On November 23, 2011, Street View became available for almost all of Belgium. While Street View content had been recorded earlier, privacy issues kept Google from making it available to the public.[9]
On February 22, 2012, Street View became available for 3 major cities in Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow, and small parts of Kazan. Museum views were made available in Russia in 2011 for St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum and Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery.[10] Street Views of Piotrkowska Street in Łódź, Poland were also released.
On March 21, 2012, Street View became available in Poland for most major cities and landmarks.
On March 8, 2013, Bulgaria and most major cities of Russia were added.
On April 23, 2013, Hungary was added. The Kaliningrad Oblast exclave of Russia was also added and almost all places in Poland and Romania, except for the major cities added earlier.
Due to legal and other issues, coverage was mostly restricted to major cities. However, on June 8th, 2023, Google announced that Google Street View was returning to Germany,[58] and soon released official coverage that covers most towns, cities, villages, major and rural roads.[14]
Street View has been controversial in different countries for various reasons.
In September 2010, the Czech Republic banned any further capturing of Street View images. This occurred after more than half a year of unsuccessful negotiation between the Czech Republic and Google.[59][60] However, on June 24, 2011, the cars started driving again, with the camera holder lowered by 30cm (12in) for privacy reasons.[61]
In November 2010, a British watchdog group said that Google broke the law by obtaining personal data from people. The British government said the company would not be fined for the breach.[62]
In March 2011, legal action against Google Street View in Germany resulted in court ruling that the project is legal;[63] however, Google later decided not to expand or update existing coverage of Germany by the service.[64]
In April 2011, a temporary ban on Google Street View data collecting in Austria was lifted, after being imposed by national data protection agency in May 2010. Google announced it was satisfied with the decision, but also stated that it had no plans to offer Google Street View coverage in Austria in the foreseeable future.[65] In July 2018 general street coverage was introduced in Austria.
In April 2013 Google was fined €145,000 for illegally recording information from unsecured wireless networks in Germany.[66]
There is some criticism of privacy concerns as well.[67]
Future coverage
Below is a list of the countries that do not currently have official coverage where Street View vehicles are currently driving, where Street View is officially planned, or have reported by media to be driving.
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bike, air and public transportation. As of 2020, Google Maps was being used by over one billion people every month around the world.
Alberta Provincial Highway No. 16, commonly referred to as Highway 16, is a major east–west highway in central Alberta, Canada, connecting Jasper to Lloydminster via Edmonton. It forms a portion of the Yellowhead Highway, a major interprovincial route of the Trans-Canada Highway system that stretches from Masset, British Columbia, to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, near Winnipeg. Highway 16 spans approximately 634 km (394 mi) from Alberta's border with British Columbia in the west to its border with Saskatchewan in the east. As of 2010, all but less than 96 km (60 mi) of the route was divided, with a minimum of two lanes in each direction. It is designated a core route in Canada's National Highway System.
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and GIS data onto a 3D globe, allowing users to see cities and landscapes from various angles. Users can explore the globe by entering addresses and coordinates, or by using a keyboard or mouse. The program can also be downloaded on a smartphone or tablet, using a touch screen or stylus to navigate. Users may use the program to add their own data using Keyhole Markup Language and upload them through various sources, such as forums or blogs. Google Earth is able to show various kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the Earth and is also a Web Map Service client. In 2019, Google revealed that Google Earth now covers more than 97 percent of the world, and has captured 10 million miles of Street View imagery.
Bing Maps is a web mapping service provided as a part of Microsoft's Bing suite of search engines and powered by the Bing Maps Platform framework which also support Bing Maps for Enterprise APIs and Azure Maps APIs. Since 2020, the map data is provided by TomTom, OpenStreetMap and others.
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expanded to include all of the country's major and minor cities, as well as the cities and rural areas of many other countries worldwide. Streets with Street View imagery available are shown as clickable blue lines on Google Maps.
Here Technologies is a Dutch multinational group specialized in mapping technologies, location data and related automotive services to individuals and companies. It is majority-owned by a consortium of German automotive companies and American semiconductor company Intel whilst other companies also own minority stakes. Its roots date back to U.S.-based Navteq in 1985, which was acquired by Finland-based Nokia in 2007. Here is currently based in The Netherlands.
Privacy advocates have objected to the Google Street View feature, pointing to photographs that show people leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, cottagers at public parks, people picking up prostitutes, and people engaging in activities visible from public property which they do not wish to be photographed and have published online. Google maintains that the photos were taken from public property. However, this does not take into account that the Street View cameras take pictures from an elevated position, enabling them to look over hedges and walls designed to prevent some areas from being open to public view. Before launching the service, Google removed photos of domestic violence shelters, and additionally allows users to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. When the service was first launched, the process for requesting that an image be removed was not trivial. Google changed its policy to make removal more straightforward, but has since removed the option to request removal of an image, replacing it by an option to request blurring of an image. Images of potential break-ins, sunbathers, and individuals entering adult bookstores have, however, remained active and these images have been widely republished.
The United States was the first country to have Google Street View images and was the only country with images for over a year following introduction of the service on May 25, 2007. Early on, most locations had a limited number of views, usually constrained to the city limits and only including major streets, and they only showed the buildings up to a certain height. Few suburbs or other nearby cities were included.
In Canada, Google Street View is available on streets, roads, and highways in most parts of the country, with coverage in all provinces and territories. The feature is also provided in Whistler Blackcomb Resort, the location of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Asia, Google Street View is available in Bangladesh, Bhutan, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, India, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. This includes disputed territories in both Israel and India. It is also available for a few select tourist attractions in the People's Republic of China, Iraq, Nepal and Pakistan.
In Oceania, Google Street View is available in most parts of Australia and New Zealand.
In South America, Google Street View is available in parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay. This article covers all of South America. For Central America and the Caribbean, see Google Street View in North America.
The following is a timeline for Google Street View, a technology implemented in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides ground-level interactive panoramas of cities. The service was first introduced in the United States on May 25, 2007, and initially covered only five cities: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and New York City. By the end of 2008, Street View had full coverage available for all of the major and minor cities in the continental United States, and had started expanding its scope to include some of the country's national parks, as well as cities elsewhere in the world. For the first year and a half of its existence, Street View featured camera icon markers, each representing at least one major city or area. By its 10th anniversary, the Street View service had provided imagery for more than 10 million miles' worth of roads across 83 countries worldwide.
Presently, in Africa, Google Street View can be seen in parts of Botswana, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Eswatini, Lesotho, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Ghana, Tunisia, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Canary Islands of Spain, and Egypt's landmarks.
Apple Maps is a web mapping service developed by Apple Inc. The default map system of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, it provides directions and estimated times of arrival for driving, walking, cycling, and public transportation navigation. A "Flyover" mode shows certain urban centers and other places of interest in a 3D landscape composed of models of buildings and structures.
Google's Street View program in Chile began with the filming of streets and roads in January 2012. On September 25, 2012, parts of the country were made available online, including Santiago, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Concepción. During 2013 and 2014 many more cities and roads were added. In March 2015 coverage was extended to the country's southernmost region of Magallanes. In December 2015 Chile's southernmost city, Puerto Williams, was added.
In North America, Google Street View is available in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Greenland, and limited coverage in some more areas.
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