Google Street View has launched in the UK. Today is like Christmas for British snoops. Across the country, people will be zooming into their front doors, sizing up their friends' new extensions, or perhaps plotting their walking route through the Aberdeenshire countryside, tree by tree.
The service has initially launched in 25 British cities, including London, Manchester and Edinburgh, allowing users to see 360-degree views of large swathes of the country. An example: this is what it would have felt like being a Beatle, while walking across Abbey Road back in the day (well, a few paces forward).
Street View is a belated arrival in the UK- it has been going strong in other countries since 2007. For travellers, the service offers plenty of perks. First up, a little "try before you buy". This website tells me that the facade of the Claude Bernard hotel in Paris is "flamboyant", but a quick Street View check reveals that it is merely "quite nice-looking". Is it worth going to see Gaudi's Pedrera in Barcelona? Yes it is - look at the thing!
Inevitably, the blogosphere is buzzing (as, of course, is the micro-blogosphere). The two go-to sites for Google map miscellany are already having a play. Google Maps Mania have started making mashups already, integrating mini-tours of London into the maps. And Google Sightseeing have busted blurry-faced miscreants (Google's face-recognition wizardry renders all faces unrecogniseable) wandering out of a sex museum on the Damrak (scroll down) - Street View has been simultaneously launched in the Netherlands. Excellent stuff.
I twittered a request for more Street View sightseeing spots this morning, and got plenty of fascinating stuff.
• Adilow finds an unsuspecting Londoner reading the paper in Covent Garden.
• runmymouth finds an ingeniously-named souvenir shop in Edinburgh's old town.
• Stavros79 finds a great view of the Tyne bridges.
• Further afield, whizzgo takes us careering around the lane-less Place de L'Etoile in Paris, in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe.
• aberquine swings past the Coliseum in Rome.
And now...over to you. Take the day off and get exploring. What can you find?
How-to
• At maximum zoom on Google Maps, double-click to zoom into Street View. Alternatively, search for an address and click the Steet View button when a location bubble pops up.
• To post your discoveries below, look for the "link" button on the top right hand side of the Street View. Copy the address and then paste it into a url shortener like is.gd (otherwise the urls are monsters). And then let us know!
