She regularly e-mails her grandchildren, enjoys listening to her iPod, and has become something of a YouTube phenomenon. Today, the Queen burnished her growing technological credentials by relaunching the royal website, with new features that even the most web-savvy whizzkids could be proud of.

More used to carrying out official duties with a sceptre and orb, Her Majesty instead unveiled the new site with a remote control, at a reception at Buckingham Palace.

Cyber-tourists can now take a virtual tour around some of Britain’s landmark royal palaces, with people able to view high-quality panoramic images of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The site also includes clips from the popular Royal Channel on YouTube, and access to rarely seen footage and documents from the Royal Archive.

But the new site contains even more advanced technological features. The Royal Diary of Engagements will be integrated with Google Maps, meaning that people will be able to print off a simple map showing the places where the Queen will visit, or even check it instantly on their iPhones.

Scans of historic documents from the royal archives that have been made available to view for the first time, including an extract from the journal of another long-reigning monarch on her first experiences with modern gadgetry. In the document from 1878, Queen Victoria describes meeting Alexander Graham Bell and trying out his new invention, the telephone.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, who hosted the launch, said that the website “celebrates a really important part of the British cultural tradition - the monarchy - and is a great resource for the people within Britain, so it deepens that culture.

“But at the same time it’s there for anybody to see it from other countries, where they really don’t understand how the monarchy works - what it does do what it doesn’t do - so now they can go and look.”

When it comes to technology, the Queen has come a long way in the past few years. She only started using a computer two years ago, and now regularly e-mails all her grandchildren, including Princes William and Harry, and Zara Phillips. She was given an iPod by Prince William two years ago, on which she reportedly listens to the Last Night of the Proms.

The current British monarchy website already received around 250,000 daily views from users from around the world. Even more popular is the Royal Channel on YouTube, which attracts millions of viewers. The YouTube videos include short documentaries on the history of the monarchy, clips from previous Christmas broadcasts going back half a century and news footage from royal weddings.

The new site is filled with tidbits of information that will delight royal supporters. This includes a page on royal animals telling visitors about the Sovereign’s corgis and dorgis, other family pets, working animals and creatures given as presents.

The site states: “Animals given as gifts during the Queen’s reign include: a brown Syrian bear given to Princess Anne by the Soviet leaders Bulganin and Kruschev; two sloths given to the Queen during her State Visit to Brazil in 1968; a baby crocodile given to the Earl of Wessex following the State Visit to Gambia in 1961.”

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