GOOGLE is in a muddle over one of Manchester's most famous streets.

The internet company has wrongly identified Canal Street on the street view area of its map service.

Instead of the cosmopolitan area, lined with trendy bars and nightspots popular with the gay community, a picture of an unremarkable back street appears.

Today, traders said they couldn't understand how the web giant could get mixed up about a street which is famous across the country as the heart of Manchester's Gay Village.

City centre spokesman Pat Karney is writing to Google to ask them to sort it out.

Phil Burke, chair of the Village Business Association, said: "We have worked hard to turn Canal Street into a cosmopolitan area. As a result, thousands of people flock to the area throughout the year.

"For something like this to be posted by Google is a travesty. We want people to be able to see what Canal Street is really like."

The street in the picture is nearby Richmond Street, a narrow road with no bars or clubs.

A spokeswoman for Google said it could be there was no street view of Canal Street because it is pedestrianised, which meant the Google video cars could not get access.

She said the problem could be solved by sending the Google tricycle out, and promised to look into the issue.