Taiwan was the eighth most searched country on Google’s Street View over the past 12 months, the U.S. technology company said as it marked the 15th anniversary of its map service which allows users to view street level images, on Tuesday.

Data from May 2021 to April 2022 showed that Taiwan and Taipei both ranked eighth among the most searched countries and cities, respectively, Google said in an article posted on its blog for services in Taiwan.

Indonesia was the most searched country during the same period, followed by the United States, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Italy, while the most search city was Jakarta, followed by Tokyo, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, New York and Istanbul, according to Google.

Following the launch of Street View for five cities around the world in 2007, Google began taking pictures along the streets in Taiwan in 2008, before the service was expanded to cover Taipei in 2009, the company said.

To mark the service’s 15th anniversary, Google said it is expanding a Street View feature called “Time Machine,” from desktop to mobile devices running on its Android operating system, as well as Apple’s iOS.

First introduced in 2014, the feature provides users with past images of a spot taken at different times, so they can “travel back in time” to as early as 2007 and “reminisce about the past,” according to Google.

Meanwhile, the company published a list of the 25 most searched spots on Street View in Taiwan, with two 7-Eleven stores — one in Lukang Township, Changhua County, the other in Dawu Township, Taitung County — taking the top and fifth places, respectively.

Other popular spots in Taiwan were the Baishatun Gongtian Temple in Miaoli County (sixth), Taipei 101 (17th), Hanshin Arena Shopping Plaza in Kaohsiung (20th), and the Fuzhong metro station in New Taipei (25th), according to Google.

The most searched places in Taiwan also include railway stations in Taichung (third), Taoyuan (ninth), Hsinchu (11th), Kaohsiung (12th), Zhongli (13th), Tainan (16th), and Taipei Main Station (24th), the company said.

Globally, the most searched spot was the Burj Khalifa — the world’s tallest building in Dubai — followed by the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Taj Mahal in India, according to the company.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel