Google Street View launches in Antarctica

Google has taken Street View to Antarctica.

The introduction of the world’s least populated continent into the sometimes controversial street mapping application shows off panoramas of Half Moon Island and its inhabitants: a large group of penguins.

Alongside the limited Street View service available in Antarctica, Google also announced that the service is now available in Ireland and Brazil. This means the service now covers all seven continents, with Western Europe and North America extensively mapped.

The announcement came in a blog post from Brian McClendon, vice-president of engineering, Google Earth and Maps, in which he said that users could now "see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica."

Mr. McClendon continued: "I'm very proud of the worldwide Street View team and thrilled that everyone can now see places from all seven continents."

Launched in 2007, Google Street View has often been criticised of infringing on people's privacy. In May 2010 the company admitted to having mistakenly recorded Wifi data while capturing images for the service.