Google Maps Hit The Streets

Recently at the Where 2.0 conference, Google announced it has rolled out city level street view in several metropolitan areas, including San Francisco ( e.g., a search for " 94111").

Unlike Microsoft Virtual Earth's Birds Eye photos, which are shot from low flying aircraft, Google's imagery gives you an immediate on-the-ground perspective and using a nifty Flash interface actually allows you to navigate the streets in a nearly 3D environment.

Clearly, this has great application in real estate, as you will now be able to scope out a potential neighborhood or property from the ground up. Of course, it still doesn't beat seeing it in real life - but becomes another handy way to narrow down search results.

It remains to be seen whether Google will roll out this feature to its API users (Trulia et al.) or if it'll keep this card close to its chest.

Also at Where 2.0, Google announced Mapplets, widget-like applications that you can add your Google Maps searches and create your own customized Maps pages. There's already a pretty substantial Real Estate Mapplets Gallery that includes contributions from Zillow, Propsmart and others. You can see what a Mapplet enabled page would look like at Google Maps.