Visits to the UK version of Google Maps increased by 41% during last week following the controversial launch of Street View for 25 major British cities. Data from Hitwise also shows that traffic to the US version increased by 84% in the same period.
The UK service saw its busiest day ever last week receiving 1 in every 250 web visits, and as a result it was the 20th most visited site in Britain. The increase in actual page views at the site increased by 76%.
The average time spent using the service also increased as people had a play about, experimenting with the new features. The time increased from around 5 and a half minutes the previous day to just over 7 minutes.
Google Maps UK received 7.9% of its incoming traffic from media and news websites, quadrupling previous figures. Overall, BBC News was the second largest source of its traffic, followed by Facebook.
[Image source: Hitwise]