What’s On announces the Google Street View Dubai service being rolled out. See Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina and JBR on Google Street View.

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Dubai has become the first Arabian city to get Google Street View.

The almost-complete service was rolled out overnight with all major tourists hotspots covered, delivering easy-to-navigate panoramic images as Downtown, Dubai Marina and JBR, Business Bay, Jumeirah and more. Private residential areas and free zones were omitted, while faces and vehicle licence plates are also blurred out.

The move is big step forward for the emirate on a world stage, bringing it in line with vast swathes of other major cities, from New York to London, and Bangkok to Cape Town. The service was first launched in 2007 and now features in 3000 destinations across 63 countries.

SEE OUR FAVOURITE IMAGES IN THE GALLERY AT THE TOP 

Google Street View in Dubai

Google has previously launched small-scale imagery for the Burj Khalifa and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, but this announcement is far more significant.

“Tourists are very much interested before they visit Dubai to see what Dubai looks like in real life,” Dubai Municipality said. “When they go to Google Maps and see 360 degrees all around important and popular streets, we think this will be interesting for them.”

Google themselves added: “Street View will allow millions of people from around the world to discover Dubai in a new way, to see and experience useful and beautiful 360-degree imagery of one of the most touristic cities in the world. Wherever we have launched Street View, we have seen positive response, and believe that people and businesses in the UAE and across the world can benefit on many levels from having this imagery available.”

 

The company also said they hoped the service would reach the the capital and the remaining emirates very soon.

Images and location data are gathered by a camera mounted on the roof of a car and stitched together to create the immersive 360 degree shots.

For all its practical uses, Google Street View has also become one of the internet’s most fun games of ‘Where’s Wally’, with comedy moments either deliberately planted or accidentally captured. People have been known to stage kidnappings and other embarrassing moments just for the cameras, while bicycle crashes, people falling over and general tomfoolery are common.

IT’S CERTAINLY COME A LONG WAY SINCE LAUNCH IN 2007….