Is your town about to appear in Google Street View?

Look out for the Google cars in your town

Google Street View hit the UK this month in a wave of publicity and controversy, some people resenting the intrusion into their lives, others loving the unintentionally amusing images it has produced.

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides a view of many streets in the world 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views.

The Google cars are usually Vauxhall Astras with a camera on top and the Google logo on the side, so quite easy to spot.

So far Google Street View has mapped 25 cities and towns:

• London
• Birmingham
• Glasgow
• Manchester
• Edinburgh
• Bristol
• Belfast
• Cardiff
• Nottingham
• Derby
• Sheffield
• Leeds
• Bradford
• Scunthorpe
• Gateshead
• Swansea
• Norwich
• Dundee
• Aberdeen
• Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Coventry
• Liverpool
• Southampton
• York
• Cambridge
• Oxford
• Watford

Google is not saying right now when the rest of the UK will be featured by refusing to give out specific locations or dates.

The Google vehicle has been spotted in...

England: Bolton, Blackburn, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Redcar, Buckingham, Chelmsford, Reading, Worthing, Ipswich, also Tunbridge Wells, Herne Bay and Ashford in Kent, and Portishead in Somerset

Wales: Denigh, Llandybie, Llandudno and Caerphilly.

Scotland: Louth, Renfrewshire and Perthshire.

They should all be online very soon.

Google has said it takes a few months to get the imagery, compile it and produce a town or city-wide map. So if you see the car – usually a Vauxhall Astra with Google logo on the side – going past your house, you can look forward to seeing it online quite soon.

Call 0800 043 07 64 to find out about using Google Street View for your business