In February 2005, Google entered the world of driving (and walking) directions, releasing Google Maps. The product was met with widespread acclaim, even appearing in an SNL skit that December in which Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell rap their love of the product, noting that Yahoo! Maps and Mapquest are good, but proclaiming Google Maps as “the best.” Fast forward a year and a half, and Google Maps got even better. In May of 2007, the search giant introduced “Google Street View” into the mix, allowing users to see panoramic views of many streets and intersections around the globe. 

Today, Google’s coverage of many areas is comprehensive; you’ll find a Street View for almost everywhere in the countries and dependencies in dark blue, above. (The map is via Wikipedia, originally here.) To get those images, Google typically sends a special car, as seen here, to the areas it wants to map; the car is outfitted with a 360-degree camera that takes lots of pictures as the driver navigates their way throughout the neighborhood. For some parts of the world -- like China (in green, which means that only tourist attractions are in the database) -- political barriers prevent the Street View car from doing its magic; for others, like most of Africa, infrastructure is the limiting factor. 

And then there are the Faroe Islands.

The Faroe Islands are an archipelago north-northwest of the British Isles and southeast of Iceland. There are 18 large islands which, collectively, are home to about 50,000 people, and as you can imagine, it’s rather rural -- there are a lot of little villages and not a lot of roads connecting them. It’s not a place where the Street View car can easily go, and it’s also not a place that Google believes was a high priority for such mapping anyway. And that didn’t sit well with the islands' tourism board. So they decided to take matters into their own hands -- or, more accurately, onto the backs of some livestock.

The Faroe Islands are home to more sheep than people, with roughly 80,000 Faroese sheep running around the archipelago. And unlike most sheep, the Faroese breed roams independently; with no natural predators, they’ve either lost or never developed the pack mentality needed to protect one another. It’s not uncommon to see a half-dozen or fewer sheep galavanting around the rocky hills or shores of the island. 

That provided the tourism board with the opportunity she needed to get the Street View data for Google -- even though the Internet giant didn’t ask. Her solution is seen below, via the Washington Post.