The Edinburgh Blog

Google Street View has now launched in the UK. The initial offering includes comprehensive coverage of Edinburgh. If you go to maps.google.com and drag the little orange man you can start experiencing Edinburgh from a street-level perspective.

The images were taken last year and Google has neglected to include Princes St and George St in the coverage, owing to road works. I’m not quite sure why Thistle St was excluded though. These three streets would surely have been amongst the most useful Edinburgh inclusions on Google Street View, especially for tourists craving a virtual wander.

I’ve picked out three interesting sights:

1) A guy giving the Google Street View the two fingered solute outside the Odeon cinema on Lothian Road

2) A familiar sight to all Edinburgh commuters - two Lothian number 22 buses right behind each other on Leith Walk

3) Good view of Edinburgh Castle from Castle Terrace.

Other UK cities receiving the Street View treatment by Google include Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, London, Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester, York, Cambridge and Leeds to name only a few.

I have to say, despite the privacy concerns, it’s a very impressive technology and a great way to get a feel for a location before you visit. It’s also a great way of finding your destination in advance, which avoids wasting hours wandering aimlessly. You can also find where the bus stops are and work out how close Lothian buses will drop you off to your final destination.

I’ll twitter any further Edinburgh ’sights’ I find. Let me know if you find anymore…