Kilkenny Castle in Kilkenny, Ireland
Google has launched the largest update of its Street View service yet, to mark the occasion of reaching 50 countries this week. The major new update sees the search giant add picturesque new ‘Trike View’ collections and imagery to go with 563,270 km (350,000 miles) of road.
Google Street View launched in five US cities in 2007 to give web users a ‘feet on the ground’ feel for places.
The company has now revealed it is reaching more than 50 countries around the world after adding Hungary and Lesotho, as well as Street View imagery of nearly 563,270 km (350,000 miles) of roads across 14 countries.
The search giant has refreshed and expanded existing Street View coverage in France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore and Thailand.
It has also added special collections of picturesque spots reached by Street View Trike technology, including Ireland’s own Kilkenny Castle, Portugal’s Pena National Palace, and the Sha Tin Che Kung Temple in Hong Kong.
“From the first handful of US cities, to the now thousands of cities and villages worldwide, we’ve spent the past six years updating Google Maps for you,” said Ulf Spitzer, programme manager for Google Street View in the Google Maps blog.
“From Antarctica to Australia, from South Korea to South Africa, from the snow-capped peaks of Everest to the Great Barrier Reef, you can navigate more than 5m miles of the world, without ever leaving home.”
