Google Street View Finally Goes Live In Germany

Google Street View has never met anymore resistance at any other place except Germany, still Google Street View is now finally introduced in Germany. In the initial wave, it includes almost 20 major cities. The resistance against Google Street View was, firstly, because the country itself is very stick regarding privacy, hence the matter was publicized more than any other place Google has showed interest of introducing Google Street View. Street View is sometimes blurred in some places and is sometimes not available of those streets which specifically opted-out of the program. Still this matter is receiving more controversies than ever before.

While making the announcement, Google’s own Product Manager, Andreas Tuerk, spoke in these words: "I’m pleased to let you know that you can explore even more of Germany because we’ve just released 360-degree, street level imagery of Germany’s 20 largest cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, my home town of Munich and more." Furthermore he added to the announcement that: "If you haven’t yet been to Germany, or if you simply want to refresh your memory from a previous visit, here are some places that might be fun to explore. These panoramic images that virtually transport you without the hassle of a plane ticket are now accessible directly from Google Maps."

Despite the controversial issues, Germany has become the first place where Google is enabling users to have their houses blurred even before the service goes live for the first time. However, according to Google, only estimated of 250,000 people had their houses blurred in Google Street View and they also claim that it’s nothing but only about three percent of the total households in the areas.