Google's red car, seen Friday afternoon driving down Franklin Avenue in downtown Yellowknife, has camera equipment installed on the roof. (CBC)

Search engine Google has dispatched some unusual-looking cars, with a large amount of camera gear on top, to roam — and photograph — the streets of at least two northern Canadian cities this week.

A red car from Google was spotted Friday driving around Yellowknife, while a silver vehicle was seen in Whitehorse this week.

In both cases, the cameras atop the vehicles were taking high-resolution digital images for the Canadian version of Google's Street View service, which provides close-up, 360-degree views of city streets as someone driving along them would see them.

The images are linked to the company's Google Maps and Google Earth applications.

Street View is already available in cities in the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Australia, Japan and several other countries.

The Canadian version is "coming soon," according to the service's website.

Touring streets, alleys

In Whitehorse, the Google car had a tripod mounted to the roof, holding nine cameras and additional three-dimensional laser imaging equipment.

Driver Don Slavens was not allowed to conduct interviews on tape, but told CBC News he has spent the last three days driving along every street and alley in all the city's neighbourhoods.

Slavens said it will take about four months before the Yukon street and highway images are available on Street View, since Google first has to blur people's faces and vehicle licence plates that are in the shots.

Google's website for Street View says people can also request to have images of themselves, their cars and homes completely removed from the service.

Can ask to remove houses, cars

"Blurring technology and operational controls like image removal are among the ways in which we ensure that an individual's privacy is respected," the website states in part.

"We make it easy for users to ask to have photographs of themselves, their children, their cars or their houses completely removed from the product, even where the images have already been blurred."

From Whitehorse, Slaven's car was next off to Haines Junction, Yukon, on Friday afternoon, then on to Haines, Alaska.

Google has already collected images in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. In March, the company said it would film 11 more cities across Canada.

However, Google had not said it was going to tour Yellowknife and Whitehorse.