Google has dramatically updated its web-based maps app, which iPhone users can access through their phone’s web browser, in a bid to lure users away from apple’s maps service. Apple’s maps service has come under fire from users for its poor maps and distorted images. The Street View service now works on both iPads and iPhones without users having to download an app.

The maps include all of Street View’s data, including the ability to walk round inside certain venues, such as this San Francisco bar.

To use Street View on the mobile browser, users simply go to maps.google.com and search for a location.  Then click the ‘pegman’ icon at the bottom right of the screen to access Street View.

“To make Google Maps even more comprehensive, accurate and useful, today we’re making Street View available on mobile browsers,” the Daily Mail quoted Amanda Leicht, Product Manager Google Maps, as writing.

“With access to Street View on your phone, you can use panoramic, street-level imagery to explore and navigate the places around you, even on the go,” she wrote.

The move is aimed squarely at Apple, which was last weeks forced to admit its own version of the Maps apps was a failure.

Google is believed to be working on a map app of its own after Apple dumped it from the built in maps app on iPads and iPhones.