Googlers can now take a virtual stroll through the streets of Chiswick and view images of your W4 house or flat, your car and garden.
People looking for property to buy or rent in Chiswick will love this latest mapping application as it’s a great way to get to know an area before a viewing. Vendors and landlords with a property to sell or let in W4 will welcome the additional means to inform buyers and tenants.
Google’s Street View, a controversial street-mapping service which gives users a ground-level view, has just been launched in the UK. The service, allows users to navigate around a 360-degree view of public roads, including buildings, traffic and people, using pictures taken by Google's special patrol cars with roof-mounted 360-degree cameras, which have been driving around the UK since last summer.
Privacy invader or beneficial technology?
Having launched in the US in May 2007, the service has been subject to intense criticism from privacy campaigners. There are worries the new technology could breach privacy laws, but developers have pledged to remove pictures deemed to breach privacy or display inappropriate content.
Google maintains the imagery used is no different from that which can readily be seen or captured walking down the street, and it has implemented face-recognition technology to automatically blur people's faces and car registration plates
There is also a link at the foot of each image, giving users the option to flag pictures deemed inappropriate or private, for removal.
Take a virtual walk in Chiswick.
Details of garden flat above.
