Microsoft to Offer Street View Service like Google
Microsoft are continuing to ramp up their challenge to Google’s search engine dominance by rolling out a competing service to Google Street View.
The company has dubbed their version ‘Street Side’ and has already rolled the service out in the US. They are now looking to extend it into Europe and their cars have been spotted taking snapshots of London already.
The company are aiming to avoid the privacy issues that Google faced while conducting their Street View work however, with Microsoft stating that the project is on a smaller scale.
According to the BBC, Microsoft wants to avoid the privacy problems that hit Google and is rolling out Street Side on a smaller scale.
Street Side director of search, Dave Coplin said “We’re not setting out to record every street. We believe it is most valuable in urban centres where people want to find services.”
The company will still face issues if they intend to collect data for geo location mapping, however the company seems to be putting off the issue for the time being, with Coplin adding “We took the decision to postpone WiFi data collection. We’d like to do it the right way. Privacy is imbued in everything we do.”
