Google is determined, one way or another, to convince the Brits that its Maps and Street View are worth more than simply violating their privacy. Today, the ever-cataloging and image-capturing company has added a new feature to its U.K. version of Google Maps – “properties” listings.
According to this morning’s announcement of the new feature in the Google LatLong Blog, a survey conducted just before Google Street View launched in the U.K. found that a fifth of respondents had used Street View in their househunting efforts.
The feature was originally launched in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand in July 2009 and now comes to the U.K. with “hundreds of thousands of listings from PropertyLive, Zoopla, Ezylet, SmartNewHomes, Vebra, Property Pal, Spicer Haart, Countrywide, and Zoomf.”
Bing Maps recently added similar features using Oodle, and our remaining contention with services such as this is that they often aggregate content from various listing services and then users end up with a thousand map points plotted to the center of a city, as lazy landlords simply put down the central zip code. To that end, Google offers a guide for realtors and real-estate professionals on why and how to use Google in listing properties online.
As with any other like feature on Google Maps, the listings on its real estate overlay (or properties, if you’re in the U.K.) automatically update and refresh when you zoom and pan around the map. Listings are also filtered according to user setting, meaning you can choose how many bedrooms, sale or rental price, and any other number of standard characteristics.
So, would you like one loo or two?
