A view of Saskatoon's downtown, including the Bessborough Hotel, can be seen in this screen grab from Google maps' Street View feature.A view of Saskatoon's downtown, including the Bessborough Hotel, can be seen in this screen grab from Google maps' Street View feature.

Google has added nine more Canadian cities to its Street View photo-mapping service, bringing the total number of municipalities represented to 20.

The search giant on Wednesday announced that Street View has been extended to Victoria, Nanaimo, B.C., Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Ont., London, Ont., Sherbrooke, Que., and St. John's, N.L. They join larger cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, which appeared on the service in October.

Street View is an online application that provides a 360-degree ground-level view of cities, compiled from photos taken by Google. The company has been collecting images of Canadian cities since 2007, with the help of vehicles that drive through neighbourhoods with cameras mounted on them.

The service first launched in the United States that year and is now available in more than 250 cities around the world.

Google said it is blurring people's faces and licence plates to comply with concerns raised by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner.

The company also said it is this week capturing images of the venues for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler for what will be Canada's first specialized Street View section.

Google also expanded Street View to Singapore and added cities in France and Japan on Wednesday. The company also added special sections for Stonehenge, Pompei, the Palace of Versailles and SeaWorld San Diego.