Now, a virtual tour of New York

Internet users in the Big Apple and other cities will soon be able to navigate their way around with the click of a mouse button without ever leaving their monitors and PC consoles.

According to The Sun, Amazon has commissioned as many as 35 million street-level photos in 24 major American cities, including New York, which will allow Internet users to navigate their way around using the Web site's Block View system.

A spokesman for Amazon said that it would be like a virtual tour of the cities, and enable users to even locate parking lots.

"It's like a virtual tour of the cities. You can locate parking lots, check out the shopfronts and get a feel for the different neighbourhoods," the paper quoted the spokesman as saying.

The site under development is at maps.a9.com.