Tel Aviv, Israel — In a relentless effort to encompass every corner of the globe in a jiffy, global search engine giant Google Inc., on Monday announced that it will soon began collecting images in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, then spread to popular sites throughout Israel for the Street View feature in its Google Maps software.
People around the world will soon be able to “stroll” through the streets of Israel’s major cities using the Google Maps program within the next year, after Google launched the project at press conference outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, in the presence of Google Israel’s CEO and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.
In the coming weeks, Google’s Street View cars and trikes will soon begin driving around and photographing a selection of major streets and locations throughout Israel, and will provide virtual visitors a glimpse of the narrow stone-paved alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City and tourist destinations in Israel.
Specially-developed cameras equipped on cars and tricycles will patrol every street–from the cobblestones of Old Jaffa to the narrow alleyways of Mea She’arim–allowing someone sitting at home a 360-degree view of the street of their favorite felafel joint, or the road outside their first apartment.
Photo credit: AP | Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, center rides a Google Street View tricycle as managing director of Google Israel Meir Brand stands by, following a press conference in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 12, 2011.
After a few weeks of photography, the images will be processed and carefully stitched together, a technical process that can take up to several months, after which they will be available on the network for Street View and Google Maps surfers.
Among the Israeli sites that will be photographed are: the Old City, Mahane Yehuda Market and Ein Karem (the birthplace of St. John the Baptist) in Jerusalem. Later, the vehicles will collect images in the German Colony and Louis promenade in Haifa, the ‘White City’ of Tel Aviv and the old Jaffa port, the Kineret Lake, Dead Sea, Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev, Ramon Crater, Nazareth, Acre and other towns.
“Israel’s cultural heritage touches billions of people around the world,” said Meir Brand, the managing director of Google Israel, South Africa, and Greece. “As an Israeli who was born here and lives here and knows what a beautiful and amazing country we have here, I want people to see and experience its unique character, and I’m happy Google can play a part.”
Brand was asked whether East Jerusalem and Jewish orthodox neighborhoods would also be photographed, to which he replied, “We will be sensitive to security instructions and we propose to photograph all of Jerusalem, starting with the Old City, Mahane Yehuda and then we would like to map as many territories as possible. We are a private company. We have no political agenda. We are presenting a technological service that will allow millions of surfers around the world to tour Jerusalem, Haifa and every place that our camera reaches.”
Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat said at the event that, “the consideration for bringing Google Street View to Israel is to preserve religious and ritual freedom and to attract tourism. The more people are familiar with Jerusalem, the more the state of the city improves. Thus it (Jerusalem) returns to its historical role: a place of pilgrimage.”
Barkat further added: “More than three billion people of faith around the world are interested in Jerusalem and wish to visit at least once in their lifetime. Soon, Jerusalem will join many cities around the world that can be visited virtually.” He added, “Since taking office, I have set a goal of reaching 10 million visitors to Jerusalem annually within a decade. Google Street View is an important tool to increase the number of tourists to Jerusalem and to open up the doors of Jerusalem to the entire world.”
Moreover, both security and data protection authorities in Israel sanctioned Google’s plans to deliver Street View to the country, and their methods, prior to the launch. As with all of its Street View imagery, Google said it would enforce face-blurring and license plate blurring to protect individual privacy.
In addition, people will be able to request additional blurring of themselves, their homes or their cars from the company by clicking on “report a problem” once images are available.
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