Google Street View, a map-based service that provides panoramic views of streets and sites by the search engine giant Google, has been formally launched in Bangladesh on Thursday.   

Road Transport and Bridges minister Obaidul Quader launched the Google Street View at a function in a Dhaka hotel. Representatives from Google and officials from different government offices were present on the ceremony.  

Now users of smartphones with internet connection can discover their destinations on the devices using the service as Bangladesh became the 65th country to enter Google Inc's Street View service.  

People from around the world can now roam around the streets of Dhaka and Chittagong online.

The search-engine giant's street view imagery allows anyone with an internet connection to view 360-degree panoramas of roads within Dhaka and Chittagong with all nearby establishments clearly noticeable.  

Additionally, 42 prominent sites across the country like the parliament building in Dhaka and Kantaji Temple in Dinajpur were also included in the database.  

The Access to Information (a2i) Programme of the Prime Minister's Office and other ministries provided Google with necessary support.  

Google Asia Pacific director for public policy Ann Lavin said this Street View imagery would help uphold Bangladesh to the world from a new perspective, showcasing lively roads in Dhaka and some of the country's most well-known tourist attractions, which will ultimately make visitors aware of the emerging tourists' destination.

He also believes that Bangladeshi businesses would get advantage from the Street View technology by embedding Google Maps directly into their site. Hotels in Dhaka, for example, can easily show their prospective guests what the building looks like on the street and also provide them with an idea of the surrounding neighbourhood.

The Street View for Bangladesh will initially include Dhaka, Chittagong and 42 other major attractions and sites across the country, with the target of covering the entire country in phases. 

With the launching of the online service, one now can enjoy digital tour around the places of his choice in Dhaka, Chittagong and dozens of other places. Besides, the most significant features of the service will allow people get road direction, check out new views of familiar and unfamiliar landscapes, choose meeting points and explore their own cities more thoroughly.

In areas where Street View is available, the imagery can be accessed by dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the bottom right-hand side of the map over and into a blue highlighted road.

In the Google Maps for mobile app on Android and iOS, people can also search for local destinations and where available, access Street View imagery directly from the search result.

Google on Thursday also introduced the Street View Trekker, a wearable backpack camera system, to Bangladesh. Designed to capture 360-degree photographs of places only accessible by foot, the Street View Trekker will allow Google to help capture more of Bangladesh's off-road sites and make these landscapes easily accessible for everyone to experience online.

Google goes to great lengths to safeguard privacy in Google Maps with Street View while enabling all users to benefit from this feature. Google has advanced highly stylish technology that effectively blurs human faces and license plates of vehicles to make them unidentifiable. In addition, Google is extremely responsive to any requests received from users to further blur any images that feature them.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Khorshed Alam Chowdhury, USAID Mission Director in Bangladesh Janina Jaruzelski, Director General (Admin) of Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Project Director of a2i Programme Kabir Bin Anwar, Policy Advisor of a2i Programme Anir Chowdhury, and other government and a2i officials were also present in the ceremony, where Google announced the latest initiative to bring more Street View to Bangladesh.

For more information about Street View and how it can be used for entertaining devotions and by businesses, one can visit: www.google.com/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/.  

Since February 2013, Google captured street images of Dhaka and Chittagong with two cars equipped with dominant cameras.  

Google Street View was launched in 2007 for several US cities and has since expanded to include 65 countries, and around 3,000 cities and rural areas worldwide.