'Virtual stroll' down your street

Street View allows users to access 360-degree views of roads in 25 cities in the UK.

The technology was first launched in the US in 2007 and is already available in seven countries worldwide.

Google users in the UK and the Netherlands can now take a "virtual stroll" - a move which takes online mapping to a new level, according to the company.

The images include millions of residential addresses, people and cars, but developers said they are keen to respect individual privacy and will "in almost all cases" remove pictures deemed to breach privacy or display inappropriate content.

Ed Parsons, Google's geospatial technologist, said: "Street View has been hugely popular with our users in Europe and worldwide and we're thrilled it's now available in the UK for so many great cities, enabling users to see street-level panoramas of major city roads and look up and print out useful driving directions."

He said the Information Commissioner's Office was consulted about privacy concerns, as was Scotland Yard.

"Privacy is really important to us. We recognise that there have been concerns about that and we think we have addressed those concerns. We have spoken to Scotland Yard and, from a crime point of view, they are happy with it, there are no issues there," he said.

Street View images are taken from public roads, captured by a number of cars which have been driving around the UK since last summer. The cars are continuing to photograph streets, which will enable Google to extend the service to cover more cities.

Street View is available in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy and the United States.