Street View Search Now Available

A most useful feature was added today and announced by the Google Lat Long Blog, the official blog for notes and news from the Google Earth and Maps team. Jie Shao, Software Engineer came to stand and said that a new feature was encompassed in the array of services available: Street View via search.

"In the past, a search of a specific location in Maps yielded a placemark on its location and a pop-up balloon containing its address. Starting today, the balloon will also display a thumbnail preview of the panoramic image for locations where Street View is available. Just click on the thumbnail or the "Street View" link under it to display the location in full view," Shao says.

It was a logical next step to take in order to use Google Maps at its full potential, but the speed at which it was taken is truly impressive, for all the important cities have not been yet indexed and made available for Street View.

Imagine how much potential this feature actually has, as you can scout ahead for parking space near the location you are planning to go to, or if you are unsure whether a specific restaurant or store is near your future location. All you have to do is to type in the query and, out of the many possible results returned - if you've been more or less vague, you'll be able to zoom down to street level and see what each and every place is actually like and/or about.

With the holiday shopping season underway this might turn out to be a more useful tool than many of you might have expected at first. To say it in the words of Sylvanas Windrunner (Warcraft fans know what I'm talking about), "Scouting ahead is everything." No more traffic jams that get you when you're at your most fragile shopping moment and no more driving around for hours for a spot to park your car in. Google Maps is king! All hail the king!