More Cities for Street View. Who's Next?

Since Street View was officially rolled out on the web, the Internet consumers were split in two sides: some of them praising the Google Maps function while others criticized the parent company for showing too many details, a matter that infringes users' privacy. The Mountain View company defended itself saying Street View shows nothing more than what's discoverable straight from the street so the Google Maps feature should evolve in more cities. And this is exactly what happened. Street View was updated again and was released today in six more towns: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson.

Stephane Lafon, Software Engineer at Google Maps, announced the feature today, adding that "the images in Phoenix, Tucson and parts of Chicago are all in high resolution." But no thing about the long-awaited Canadian Street View which was supposed to infringe the country's laws if it comes in the same format as the US one.

"But wait! There's more. Ever wish you could pan up to the very top of a 50-story skyscraper using Street View? Well, prepare yourself for some serious sightseeing; we've introduced the ability to pan up in most new cities," the Google official wrote on the official blog.

Almost everybody is now expecting the Canadian release of Street View but the Mountain View company didn't comment on this matter and refused to provide a launch date. In case you missed the news, the Canadian authorities informed Google that Street View cannot be available in their country in the same format because it might infringe their local laws. In order to comply with the laws, Google has to blur the people's faces and other private information discoverable from the web-based technology and avoid showing other details concerning the Canadians.

If you want to view some of the new Street View cities, go over to Google Maps and search for one of the cities mentioned above.