Microsoft Streetside will display street-level, 360-degree images, using Navteq&39's cars, seen here at Nokia World.

Microsoft has started taking photos in London for Streetside, its Bing Maps photo feature that will go up against Google Street View in the United Kingdom.

The Streetside feature will display street-level images collected using a 360-degree camera, the company said today. Mapping specialist Navteq--which is wholly owned by Nokia--has partnered with Microsoft and is providing the cars to take the 360-degree photos. As well as collecting images, Navteq will gather point-of-interest data such as where landmarks or pubs are located and other road and location information.

"Users should begin seeing [U.K.] images on Bing Maps from around the first or second week of May, depending on the weather and other factors," a spokesman for the company told ZDNet UK.

Read more of " Microsoft drives Streetside mapping into the UK" at ZDNet UK.