Parliament! Big Ben! Google Street View Hits U.K., Netherlands
Google Street View is part of Google Maps' effort to continue adding more detail to its mapping service. Street View in the U.S. launched in January 2008 and instantly became something of a sensation. The images, which are taken by a camera mounted on top of a car, have caught images of people sleeping on the street and a car hitting a deer, to name a few.
Currently, the U.K. version of Street View is letting users "explore the biggest cities in the U.K. with 360-degree street-level imagery."
The first round of cities highlighted by the search engine giant includes London, Belfast, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Oxford.
The U.S. version of Street View launched with just 23 cities covered, but by the end of 2008 it seemed that most major cities, and many non-major cities, were covered as well. Assuming Google continues its efforts with the same tenacity in the U.K. that domestic viewers saw, most of the U.K. will be covered in a year or so.
In the Netherlands, Google Street View has images online of some iconic places in Amsterdam, including Royal Palace at Dam Square, the Rijksmuseum and Centraal Station. In addition to Amsterdam, it appears that Rotterdam and Groningen are also covered.
