While privacy campaigners are asking for Google Street View to be closed down, others are embracing the technology and hope to use it to their own advantage.
Most notably is the Tate Collection, which has taken a number of its works that feature cityscapes or street scenes and uploaded them to the Street View site; at the click of a button the painting is transformed into the equivalent modern view courtesy of the Google cameras.
Aside from the sheer novelty of this application, there is an interesting cultural development angle. To see how our landscape has changed over the last few centuries in such a dramatic fashion is both entertaining and enlightening.
It is not just the Tate that has seen the opportunities afforded by the controversial website: Fancy a Pint has teamed up with Google to highlight what it considers to be the best pubs in London.
Visit Britain has made a similar effort with top tourist attractions and even Boris Johnson has got in on the act with famous London landmarks.
