Discover Israel on Google Maps with Street View

Google StreetView car taking pictures of Tel Aviv Israel

Google Street View launched in Israel on Thursday - three days earlier than planned. For now, it's only Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and special locations, but I can tell you that they already made it to my little neck of the woods.

In the first stage, the service only offers street views of Israel's three largest cities - Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. In addition, several specific sites in other parts of the country can be seen as well. These include the Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva, the Mini Israel miniature park and Kibbutz Merhavia in northern Israel.

The Internet giant deployed its Street View vehicles last September on the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Mitzpeh Ramon in the central Negev and even the Kinneret and the Dead Sea.

Israel officials authorized the Street View cameras after three months of negotiations to define certain conditions to protect privacy.

In accordance with its promise, Google did not reveal license plate numbers and home addresses before publishing the images online. These items, as well as the faces of people on city’s streets, have been obscured.

Here's a video of them filming in Tel Aviv.

Google Maps Car Arrives in Meah Shearim

As the Google maps car continues its trek of mapping street views of Israel's cities, the car paid a visit yesterday to Meah Shearim.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The curious residents weren't hostile at all...and the question is who gawked more at the other. Soon, everyone will be able to view the streets of Meah Shearim via Google Street Views, no matter what your wearing, with no fear of reprisals.

The Google Maps Street View car photographing the simtaot, the small, narrow streets and alleyways of Mea Shearim..

Google Brings Jerusalem, Israel To Virtual Tourist

Google's Street View will soon provide virtual visitors a glimpse of the narrow stone-paved alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City and other tourist destinations in Israel.

Google deploys cameras mounted on cars and other vehicles to take Street View's 360-degree images, which users of the Web site can then view by zooming in on any given point on a map.

Outside Jerusalem's Old City walls on Monday, Google Israel's managing director Meir Brand announced that filming will begin in the next few months in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and tourist attractions elsewhere.

"For the first time we can truly say Israel is on the digital map," Brand said.

Israel was concerned that the detailed photos could help terrorists plan attacks. Last month Israel announced that it had reached an agreement with Google on security and legal issues related to the project.

In addition to security concerns its not clear how some of the diverse religious groups in Jerusalem and Israel will react to being filmed.

"Our desire is to bring all of Jerusalem to Google Street View," Brand said. "We want to cover as many areas as we can."

Israel is the first country in the region to allow the service around its cities. Google also offers the service in Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad.