Google is inviting hundreds of millions of web users worldwide to get up close to Dubai's Burj Khalifa after creating a 360-degree panorama of the famous tower to launch its popular Street View service in the Middle East.
The Burj has joined the The White House, Greece's Acropolis and a handful of other "locations of cultural, historical or social significance" around the world in being specially mapped by Google.
The interactive rendering enables users to navigate the corridors, elevators, restaurants and pools of the world's tallest building with a scroll of their mouse.
Launching the service in Dubai yesterday, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, Tarek Abdalla, said: "For the first time in our history we have taken our Street View technology to a skyscraper. What better place to start than Burj Khalifa?"
The web giant revealed it approached Burj developer Emaar Properties in October last year for permission to record images of the famous tower to make available to the one billion people a month who use its mapping services.
Emaar instantly gave the idea the thumbs-up and Google's Street View team spent three days in May mapping every possible surface of the building.
This was not without its challenges - the internet firm revealed that rain clouds delayed its efforts to get the best views.
The firm used a 'trekker'- a backpack-mounted device featuring several cameras - to allow its team to walk around and record the necessary footage.
Google's pioneering Street View service has been criticised in some quarters for recording images of people without their permission. But Mohammad Gawdat, Google's vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, said the firm has blurred the faces of everyone captured in images of the Burj.
Web users can see the Burj Khalifa Street View at google.ae/streetview.
© 7Days 2013
