Google SA Street View to go live before 2010 World Cup

At a press conference in Johannesburg today, Google announced the launch of Street View for South Africa and promised to go live before the 2010 World Cup. In the coming weeks Google, using Toyota Prius models will begin driving around South Africa and taking photographs of locations, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps that is already available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through panoramic street-level images. It is also available in Google Earth and on Google Maps for Mobile. Images collected by the cars will be processed and carefully stitched together, a technological process that can take several months. They will be made available at a later date in Street View on Google Maps for South Africa.

In areas where Street View is available you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, or get a helping hand with geography homework. Househunters can save time by exploring properties and their surrounding area in advance and also by looking up driving directions.

Businesses can also benefit from the Street View technology by embedding Google Maps directly into their site for free, helping them to promote a chain of hotels or raise awareness about a local library or restaurant.

Toyota’s Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Andrew Kirby, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Google and supplying our fuel efficient and environmental friendly Prius for this groundbreaking project in South Africa. South Africans and international visitors alike will benefit tremendously from Street View, which is both fun and practical. We hope that people across South Africa’s major cities keep their eyes peeled for the Street View cars, and feel part of a major new initiative.”

Steven Newton, Country Manager for Google South Africa, thanked Toyota for its involvement in this groundbreaking project in South Africa. “We are excited to partner with a company renowned for its reliability and quality, but also for its innovative and cutting-edge technology as seen in the Toyota Pruis.”