Panoramic views of nearly 95 per cent of Cornwall’s roads went live onto Google’s controversial Street view today.

The major update means that users can log onto the service and go on a detailed virtual tour of the county.

When it was first launched the service was only available in the UK’s major cities, but now nearly every inch of tarmac from Sennen to St Austell has been covered by the firm’s instantly recognisable camera cars.

The service now also offers images of major landmarks, thanks to the company’s camera fitted bicycle and trailer.

While most people race to look at their own, and friends houses, surveys show that two thirds of people who have used the service used it get directions. One third have used it to look at places abroad and one in five have used maps during house-hunting.

It has not all been smooth driving for the service, with concerns raised that burglars could use it to pick out targets.

Residents in the village of Broughton, Buckinghamshire felt so strongly about what they called an intrusion of privacy that last year they formed a human chain to block a Google camera vehicle from driving down their streets.

Google has taken steps to blur images of faces and car registrations.

The company also provides a 'report a problem' button on the Street View website for users to flag up inappropriate or sensitive images to be reviewed and removed.

This allows anyone to ask that images of themselves, their car or their house are erased from the service.

The images are not just banal shots of roads and homes, as the cameras have also picked up some strange moments in their travels.

Pictures of people falling off bikes, a house on fire and more than one seemingly drink person passed out at the side of the road has been photographed.

The service works by capturing the panoramic images, which are then matched to a specific location using GPS.

The images are then sewn together to create a 360° panorama, before they are uploaded to the internet.