You can now visit all seven continents using Google Street View! See highlights from around the world, from penguins in Antarc)tica to beaches in Brazil. Unfortunately you cannot walk along our Russian streets, but you can do it with the help of Yandex Maps, the available streets are highlighted, you choose the city (but this service works only in big cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Tyumen), and click “Panorama”. Enjoy it!
By the way, it is also a marvelous opportunity to get acquainted with the unfamiliar locality when one goes on a business trip or has to find where a certain building is situated. It becomes much easier for travelers to take their bearings in the places they have never been to before.
Really, unbelievable! I remember using the Google engine to look at some of London streets. I was amazed at being able to see live images. Predictably, this opens up a new sphere of false-toursim. Those who cannot afford to go aborad for different reasons can well be satisfied by panoramic and detailed views of the place they are interested in.
I think it's great to use programs like Google Street View. We can see interesting places located in different parts of the world without going to them. We can quickly get high-resolution images of famous sights with the help of our mobile phones. But it's a pity that not all devices support this function. It's a fact that technical equipment around us becomes more complicated and "intelligent" every day. I sometimes think that modern communicators are cleverer than people in many aspects!