Google Street View has arrived in South Korea for the first time, with explorable street-level imagery available for Korea’s two largest cities; Busan and Seoul.
The imagery was collected using specially adapted Street View cars in October 2009 and, after some legal interruptions, has been made available today to the public.
Google admitted in May 2010 that its Street View vehicles mistakenly collected private data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks; something which eventually led to the South Korean police raiding Google’s office in Seoul in August 2010.
Along with Google’s Street View announcement in South Korean, 45° imagery has been made available for 24 new cities, including 17 in the United States, six in Europe and one in South America. 45° images are a great addition to Google Maps, adding perspective views towards the north, south, east and west.
The 17 new US cities to receive 45° imagery are Boise/Caldwell, ID; Buffalo, NY; Chattanooga, TN; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Greenville, SC; Houston/Pasadena, TX; Kansas City/Gladstone, MS; Knoxville/Louisville, TN; Memphis/Bartlett, TN; Mobile, AL; Nashville, TN; Pensacola, FL; Racine, WI; Santa Monica, CA; Sarasota/Englewood, FL; and Stockton, CA.
In Europe the six receiving cities are Baiona, Spain; Basel, Switzerland; Friedberg, Germany; Mannheim, Germany; Santander, Spain; and Ulm, Germany, with Porto Alegre, Brazil the sole beneficiary in the southern hemisphere.