Ireland's Streets 'Get Googled'

Google's Street View car will soon be back on Ireland's streets, to fill in the gaps for it's Google Earth application.

Google's fleet of cars took to Irish streets last year, with a focus on mapping the five major cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, but have returned to complete their compendium of our roads.

Last March, Google cars arrived in Dublin with the aim of mapping out city centres plus suburban and outlying areas with an aim of launching its online panoramic mapping service Street View that gives users a car's-eye view of streets while allowing them to virtually explore.

Originally, Google said that Street View for Ireland would be launched anywhere from three months to a year later and while this has not happened yet the return of the Google car aims to add some more street-level imagery before launch.

"We started driving in Ireland last summer to collect imagery to launch Street View in Ireland but want to fill a few gaps, and add a few more special sites," said a Google spokesman, adding that Ireland's top tourist attractions and natural scenery will be included.

Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin said Street View "is an example of a practical innovation which makes life easier for people using the Internet to locate and research Ireland’s cities, towns and streets”.

Its applications are many but one of the real benefits for Ireland is from a tourism perspective, she said.

“Street View will showcase the real beauty of Ireland’s towns and countryside to millions of internet users around the world and has the potential to deliver a welcome boost to visitor numbers to Ireland."

Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was launched on May 25, 2007, originally only in several cities in the United States, and has since gradually expanded to include more cities and rural areas worldwide.

So far, North America, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and most of South America have been captured by Street View.

(DW)