Brighton and Sussex to appear on Google Street View this Thursday (From The Argus)

Brighton and Sussex to appear on Google Street View this Thursday

2:49pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

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Brighton looks set to become viewable on Google Street View from this Thursday.

The internet giant has announced that street level imagery of most of UK will become available through its service.

This comes almost a year after the Google car, with its distinctive cameras mounted on the roof, were first spotted in Brighton and the surrounding areas.

Ed Parsons, Google's Geospatial Technologist said: "This new imagery of so many stunning British places means it's the ideal time to start planning a trip, kick start a house-hunt or simply ensure you never arrive late to a meeting again.”

When the cars were first spotted, the prospect of every Sussex street being photographed and put online raised privacy concerns.

Des Turner, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, added that there was “a potential for the invasion of privacy.”

He added: “The ability to do things sometimes comes before the debate about whether they are the right things to do.”

But Google says it has gone to great lengths to safeguard privacy, saying it contains only imagery already visible from public roads, and features technology which blurs faces and licence plates.

Today, new findings from YouGovreveal how people use it in their daily lives.

It shows almost two thirds (60%)of people who have used Street View have done so to find out where they're going and get directions; one third (33%) have used it to look at places in other countries and one in five (21%) have already used it for house-hunting, despite up until now only being available in 25 UK cities.

On Monday, Google announced the winners of its ‘Britain’s Best Streets’ awards, in which Brunswick Square came sixth in the most picturesque category, won by the Shambles in York.