Google Street View starts covering indoors of airports and train stations

Google Street View has been about more than streets for some time now: in recent months, the internet giant has added US national parks, ski resorts, Venice's canals and the Galapagos Islands to its database.

Now the company is turning its attention to some indoor locations, although they're not quite as picturesque. Google has added 16 international airports and 59 train and subway stations to Street View, including a number of British locations.

They include Gatwick Airport and train stations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, as well as a (nearly) full set of London mainline stations: Paddington, Victoria, King's Cross, St. Pancras, Charing Cross, Waterloo, London Bridge, Cannon Street, Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street.

Google is pitching the new additions as a feature for tourists. "Now, in addition to scoping out your destination, Street View can help you cut down the stress of traveling by giving you a preview of your journey, too," blogged Street View program manager Ulf Spitzer.

"Our first efforts to map global transit locations include 16 international airports, over 50 train and subway stations, and even a cable car station in Hong Kong."

Google has published an interactive map showing the new Street View transit locations. This isn't the first time Street View cameras have peeked inside British buildings: in May, the University of Sheffield added full 360-degree panoramas of some of its facilities to Street View.

However, Street View has been controversial in the UK too. In May, Google was threatened with criminal proceedings by the information commissioner's office (ICO) for failing to delete private data collected by its Street View cars from public Wi-Fi networks.


/The Guardian/