Google launches Street View for eight Romanian cities

Google, the world's most popular search engine, has launched Street View in Romania, a service allowing users to view panoramic images of 8 cities of the country for the beginning.

The service is now available for Bucharest, Arad, Oradea, Braşov, Timişoara, Cluj, Constanţa and Sibiu.
"Future plans with regard to Street View highly depend on the reaction to this service. I believe photos will be renewed every 1-2 years," stated Dan Bulucea, Google country manager for Romania.
The service, launched in 2007 in the US, covers streets with a total length of over 6,000 km in the country, with Romania as the 27th country where panoramic images are available. Street view can be accessed through Google Maps portal or Google Earth application.
According to Bulucea, Street View is a tool for domestic companies to promote themselves on the Internet and to boost their turnovers.
He estimated 20% of companies in Romania are using the Internet as a promotional tool. "We hope to drive this percentage to 30% in the near future," says Google Romania head, who, before taking his current position, had worked for Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, for twelve years,.