KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 ― From today, users of Google Maps can explore many of Malaysia's famous landscapes, cities and neighbourhoods through panoramic street-level photographs.

Approximately 90 per cent of the Malaysian peninsula's scenery is now accessible online via Google Street View, a comprehensive street-level imagery of buildings, highways and roads, the company said today.

“It is a way to go to that place before you go there in person.

“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,” Google Malaysia managing director Sajith Sivanandan said at a media briefing.

The imageries were captured over a year using cameras installed on cars. For off-road sites, a wearable backpack-mounted camera system was used.

Sivanandan said, however, that the images available on street view are not real-time and will be updated on a monthly or bimonthly basis.

He allayed privacy concerns, stressing that street view blurs human faces and licence plates of vehicles to render them unidentifiable.

“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,” Sivanandan added.

He added that Google Malaysia is currently working on developing a street view option for east Malaysia.

“With Street View, we are putting the layers on Google maps,” said Google Malaysia's media spokesman Zeffri Yusof.