Google Malaysia has unveiled a major update to Google Maps in Malaysia by publishing comprehensive Street View imagery of the country for locals and people around the world to enjoy.
After driving Street View cars for the past year, Google has now published imagery of approximately 90 percent of the scenery found along peninsular Malaysia’s public roads, including major highways and tolled roads, state roads, urban centres and neighbourhoods. The imagery also showcases some of Malaysia’s off-road sites, which were captured the Street View Trekker, a wearable backpack-mounted camera system.
Highlights of the new imagery include:
● Taman Negara National Park — the oldest rainforest in the world;
● The holiday destination islands of Langkawi and Pangkor;
● Penang and Melaka, both UNESCO world heritage sites; and
● The government administrative centre of Putrajaya.
In areas where Street View is available, street-level imagery can be accessed by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the right-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. In the new Google Maps, people can also search for local destinations and where available, access Street View imagery from the imagery carousel that sits at the bottom of the screen.
By bringing Street View to Malaysia, Google said that it hopes to provide Malaysians with more relevant and useful online map services and more ways of exploring both favorite and unfamiliar local spots, while also helping foster the country’s economic development through better maps.
“Malaysia is a diverse and constantly growing country, and by providing users and businesses with more useful map information, Street View can also help create lasting economic impact. We are pleased to be able to share these new panoramic imagery of Malaysia on Google Maps and we hope people around the world will find them useful and enjoyable too,” says Sajith Sivanandan, Managing Director, Google Malaysia.
Google plans continue to drive and trek across the country, with the objective of capturing updated imagery across Malaysia regularly over the coming years.
Google is saying that it goes to great lengths to safeguard privacy on Google Maps while enabling all users to benefit from Street View imagery. Google has developed highly sophisticated technology that effectively blurs human faces and license plates of vehicles to render them unidentifiable. In addition, Google is very responsive to any requests received from users to further blur any images that feature them — to submit a request, people can use the “Report a problem” tool available on the bottom right corner of Google Maps.
Google Street View for Malaysia can now be accessed at maps.google.com.my.