MICROSOFT’S camera cars are photographing the streets of Liverpool as the technology giant develops a rival to Google’s Street View.

Microsoft’s search engine Bing already has its own mapping service – but now it is adding street-level photography, using its Streetside technology.

Google is already attempting to cover every street in the UK with Street View. But Bing is focusing on urban centres, where it can include extra information on shops and businesses.

Bing has already completed work in London and has now moved on to Liverpool and Manchester. Camera cars, operated by digital mapping company Navteq, are now driving some of the city’s main roads.

Google’s Street View photography proved controversial, with some objecting to seeing their pictures used online without permission.

Dave Coplin, director of search at Microsoft UK, says Microsoft is keen for people to contact it to share any privacy concerns they have.

He said: “We’ve learned a lot from what happened to Google.

“We want people to know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.We don’t just want them to see the car.

“We believe these services are really important for delivering some really compelling user experiences for customers.

“We know that there are privacy implications. Some people aren’t comfortable with it. We want to give them the opportunity to talk to us.”

Mr Coplin said Bing only wanted to focus on retail and business districts of major urban centres, as people are more interested in finding information on those areas.

He said: “We’ve only just finished London. We’ve now moved on to Liverpool and Manchester. We’re doing in total only 29 locations in the UK.

“We’re not attempting to do every street in the UK.”

Mr Coplin said Bing wanted to use mapping and photography to help people “search and do” rather than just search.

He said: “The thing to understand about Bing is that we’re not trying to out-Gooogle Google. It’s a different trajectory.

“When the internet was first around, we’d say ‘tell me more about the migration patterns of the South American swallow. Now, we say ‘It’s Thursday night. I want to see a movie. Where is it on, where we buy tickets’. It’s about doing things.

“For example, if I’m coming to an event in Liverpool, I want to know where the event is, but also where’s the nearest parking.

“And where’s the entrance to the car park – we know where it is, but where do the cars go? It’s why we’re focusing on urban conurbations, rather than on rural Wirral.”

Users are able to look at streets in Block View, which “flattens out” the buildings on a street so all the buildings on one side of a street can be seen.

Users can then put comments and reviews beneath the shops.

“We can add data to it,” said Mr Coplin. “That also includes public service information – for example, you can show where the disabled entrance is to a station.”

Anyone with a query about Streetside photography can call Microsoft’s freephone number, 0800 881 5372.