Never been confused if you find no more available some of UK street at Google Street View service since Google has removed dozens of photos from its new UK Street View service as published by BBC at their site. The street mapping facility launched amid a fanfare of publicity but now the firm has been forced to pull some of the images after complaints. It is thought the pictures removed contained revealing images of homes, a man entering a London sex shop, people being arrested and a man being sick.

Street View first launched in the United States in May 2007 and is already available in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain and Italy. The Netherlands version of the service also launched on Thursday, bringing the total number of countries covered to nine. The imagery available comprises video taken along 22,369 miles of UK streets by customized camera cars. Street scenes in 25 UK cities from Aberdeen to Southampton can be viewed using the service.

Google says it has gone to great lengths to ensure privacy, suggesting that the service only shows imagery already visible from public thoroughfares. It also uses face recognition technology to blur out faces and registration plates that appear in the images. Now, unavailable images are replaced offending images with a black screen.