Google Maps ‘Street View’ makes its way into Malaysia.
Malaysia’s peninsular scenery at a street level will now be visible to billions of Google Maps users as ‘Street View’ was made available by Google, in an announcement made by the company in Kuala Lumpur on September 30, 2014. Google stated that about 90 percent of Malaysian landscapes, cities, highways and roads have been covered in the purview to provide more useful map information.
The company gathered a stock of images over the past year through partners and independent contractors by using cameras installed on cars, while off-road images were procured using a wearable backpack-mounted camera system or attaching cameras to kayaks or motorbikes. Although the images are not real-time, efforts are underway to update them on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.
Old Street Views data is stored for a feature called ‘Time Machine’ that enables users to go back in time and peruse through changes that have been made to a particular area at a certain point in time.
As far as privacy is concerned, certain street views with human faces or vehicles license plates will be blurred. The company has kept the floor open for requests from people who would like to further blur more images through the ‘report a problem’ tool on the bottom right of Google Maps.
Google has also stated that street view option for east Malaysia is currently under construction.
Photo Credits: Lowyat.net
