Google to offer street view of Bangalore

Google today said it will offer street view of Bangalore city on its maps platform.

In a statement Google said," it will begin imagery collection in Bangalore for the Street View feature in Google Maps".

The Internet search engine giant will collect images of streets by driving across the city in specially designed cars and trikes, (three-wheel pedi-cab), which are embedded with high resolution cameras mounted on top. The images will be made available at a later date in Street View on Google Maps.

Street View is a popular feature of Google Maps, already available in more than 27 countries. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images

Google said in order to protect privacy, the vehicles will capture images of public places alone and blur out faces of people and number plates of vehicles to make them unidentifiable.

Moreover, Google said it will be extremely responsive to any request received from a user for the additional blurring of any images that features them.

"We decided to start driving in Bangalore because it is the IT capital of India and feel that the IT savvy users will be able to leverage the benefits of the product to the fullest.

"Street View is useful for urban development planners, law enforcement agencies, house-hunters, and travellers," Google India Product Head Vinay Goel said.

Last year, Google came under probe from several countries following its StreetView vehicles inadvertently collected email addresses, passwords and other personal information from Wi-Fi networks.

Google which has launched the StreetView services in 2007 said, "Street View is designed to comply with all local laws including those related to security and privacy in India".