W3Galaxy Network

US software giant Google said it had removed several images from its Street View software, which allows web surfers to view parts of 25 British cities, after users raised privacy concerns.

Street View displays 360-degree ground-level images captured by roaming cars using digital photography equipment.

The cars began taking images last summer, and continue to capture images across the country, allowing the service to expand after its launch here on Thursday.

Just 24 hours after its release in Britain, however, Google said it had removed several pictures, including ones that users found embarrassing, such as one of a man leaving a sex shop in central London’s Soho neighbourhood, or another one of a man vomiting outside a pub in the east of the British capital.

Get a fresh start on the Web this spring with special savings from Go Daddy! Register or renew any .COM for just $7.49/yr and SAVE 25% off our already-low price of $9.99/yr.*

Register or renew any .COM now for just $7.49/yr!*
Use source code gdr0303x when you check out.

The more you order, the more you SAVE, so stock up on .COM domain names and register them for as long as you like! And remember, each .COM from Go Daddy comes with over $100 in FREE extras, including Photo Album, Personalized Email, Hosting with Web Site Builder, Quick Blogcast and more.

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft announced a joint effort to help reduce duplicate content. The three major search engines came together to allow users to point out their preferred version of a url. This format offers users more control.

Duplicate content has been a challenging issue for a long time. Websites containing a lot of content such as a retail site, could end up with several urls for each page making it difficult for search engines to crawl.

Google gives the following example on the Webmaster Central blog:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish” />

Simply place this link tag in the head section of the duplicate content urls.

The tag can only be used on pages within a single site. Both absolute and relative links are acceptable, but the search engines recommend absolute links. Also, links to all urls will be directed to the one preferred url.

For more information, each of the search engines have explanations and examples in their own announcements: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.