Google today (Friday 23rd April) announced that it will begin imagery collection in the Isle of Man for its Street View feature in Google Maps.
Starting next week, branded Google cars will begin driving on public roads, taking photographs of locations around the popular island.
Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps which is already available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world and more than 20 countries.
It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images. It is also available in Google Earth and on Google Maps for Mobile.
Still images collected by the cars will be processed and carefully stitched together, a technological process that can take several months. They will be made available at a later date in Street View on Google Maps.
In areas where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework. Househunters can save time by exploring properties and their surrounding area in advance and also by looking up driving directions.
Local businesses can also benefit from the Street View technology by embedding Google Maps directly into their site for free, helping them to promote a chain of hotels or increase awareness of a local library or restaurant.
Alex Downie MLC, Member of the Department of Economic Development, Isle of Man Government said, "We are really pleased that Google is extending it's coverage of Street View to cover the Isle of Man.
"People around the world will be able to see the natural beauty and features unique to the Island. Potential visitors can take a tour of the Island and be inspired to come and visit our shores."
Laura Scott, Spokesperson for Google, said,"We're thrilled to be starting driving to collect images of the Isle of Man. It will give maps users the chance to explore this beautiful island in a new way and then come and visit in person.
"We estimate it will take us a few weeks to gather the images and this is an ideal time of year to gather great pictures.
"Google goes to great lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all users to benefit from this feature.
"As with all Street View imagery, Google will apply face-blurring and license plate blurring to these images to protect people's privacy.
"Once images are available, people will be able to report images for removal, or additional blurring, by clicking on 'report a problem' on the bottom left hand corner of the image. From here they complete a short form where they indicate the precise image to be removed."
