Google yesterday announced the launch of Street View for 25 cities in the UK, allowing users to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery for places including Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester, Oxford and many more.

This is a fantastic step forward for walkers, as walking in unknown places is often a major barrier for people trying new routes. This is a practical technological advance that everybody can use alongside maps. By offering more confidence to city pedestrians by allowing them to preview walks at street-level, Google Street View will prove to be a hugely useful tool.

In areas where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange "Pegman" icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework, or just explore and get to know your town better.

What do you think about Google Street View? Would you be more inclined to walk to work if you could see exactly where you would be walking first? Or have you spotted a shortcut on Street View that you had never seen before? We would like to hear you views, so join the debate here.