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Happy Birthday, Israel – from Google

Apr 25, 2012 at 06:11:41 PM

Google and Israel have always had a special relationship. Google's first R&D facility in the Middle East was opened in Israel. Now this week, in conjunction with Israel's Independence Day, Google has launched the long-awaited Israeli version of "Street View."

For years, Google's popular Street View feature ― which shows genuine photographs of every stretch of road in the Western world ― had been prohibited in Israel due to security concerns. But Google engineers developed a method of automatically blurring faces and license plates, and that was enough to get the government's go-ahead.

Now folks in every corner of the planet can visit the Western Wall and the Aish Center immediately opposite. Users can see Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo, the Israel Museum and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. Or they can stroll through Tel Aviv's hip Neve Tzedek neighborhood and the ancient port of Jaffa.

To top it all off, the Google logo ― seen during the billion search queries that Google processes each day ― has been transformed into a global 64th birthday card for the Jewish state.

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Published: April 25, 2012

Visitor Comments: 1

(1) Lorilei Docherty, April 26, 2012 5:48 PM

Sorry, but the Flags didn't fly in America. ;( I and several "friends" on FB tryed and no flags. Sad.

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Shraga's Blog presents an eclectic mix of insights on current topics through the lens of Torah Judaism. The author, Rabbi Shraga Simmons, holds a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. He is the senior editor of Aish.com and the director of JewishPathways.com. He was the founding editor of HonestReporting.com and is the author of a new book, David & Goliath: The Explosive Inside Story of Media Bias in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2012).

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