SA gets Google Street View
2010-06-08 12:42
Cape Town - After months of taking photographs, Google Street View is live for South Africa.
After launching the vehicles in September, Google has made available 27 cities and towns in its Street View program, allowing users to view street-level views in the internet giant's mapping site.
"It's also going to be a massive bonus for the tourism industry, especially with all the international visitors arriving in South Africa. Tourists will be able to take a look at sights and stadiums before they get here, while the rest of the world can enjoy the view from their mobile phone or PC," communications manager for Google South Africa, Julie Taylor, told News24.
Seven of South Africa's soccer stadiums will also be available at pitch level in Street View. Tourists should find Street View useful in that they would be able to explore tourist sites before physically going there.
"Whether you're looking at Cape coastal scenery, the Blyde River Canyon, or at our state-of-the-art new soccer stadiums, Street View is going to be an excellent tool for the tourism industry at large," said Roshene Singh, chief marketing officer at South Africa Tourism.
"Kruger is an iconic South African destination, and the launch of Street View in South Africa means that we can bring Kruger's spectacular wildlife to even more people around the globe. In fact, our elephants are the first elephants ever on Street View," said William Mabasa, head of public relations at the Kruger National Park.
Internationally, Google has come under fire from prosecutors for invasion of privacy concerns in this program, and Google has ensured that all faces and vehicle licence plates are blurred out in the Street View images and users can also lodge objections to images they find offensive.
"Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads and features technology that blurs both faces and licence plates. In addition, any user can easily flag images for removal that he or she considers inappropriate by clicking on 'Report a problem'," Google SA said in a statement.
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