Google Maps launched 9 new experimental features. You can enable any of the new features by clicking the little green vial 
in the top right menu.
I use Google Maps for my real estate appraisal business almost everyday. Three of the new features I found useful are: Drag ‘n’ Zoom that lets you draw a box on the map to immediately zoom into that place, What’s Around Here? which shows the top results in the current view, and Aerial Imagery. Aerial Imagery is unfortunately on available in certain areas for now but I did have fun exploring Winchester Mystery House, San Jose.
Below is the list of current Google Maps Labs features:
- Drag ‘n’ Zoom – Zoom into the desired drawing by drawing a box around it.
- Aerial Imagery – Gives you rotatable, high-resolution overhead imagery presented in a new perspective. Currently imagery is only available in certain areas, but you can expect its reacch to increase with time.
- Back to Beta – A strange feature that enables you to bring the Beta tag to Google Maps.
- Where in the World Game – Puts your knowledge of world geography to a test. Guess the name of the country from satellite imagery, and try to beat your own top score
- Rotatable Maps – Rotate the maps in the direction you like besides the traditional North one.
- What’s Around Here? – Adds a second search button that searches for “*”, returning the top results in the current view.
- LatLng Tooltip – Displays the exact latitude and longitude next to your cursor via a tooltip.
- LatLng Marker – A context menu option that allows you to drop a marker anywhere on the map, showing the latitude and longitude of that location.
- Smart Zoom – Intelligent zooming as it zooms into a particular only if imagery is available at that depth/zoom level.
In a previous blog post, I asked Will Google be the Appraiser’s Source for Plat Maps? In some areas you can view property lines on the map. Google Maps already shows Real Estate listings. How much longer until property tax records are available in Google Maps?
The amount of data that is available for free on the internet is astonishing and growing at a rapid rate. Is your real estate appraisal business ready for the changes?
What mapping tool do you use for your real estate business?
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{ 4 comments }
Bryan,
Thanks for the update on Google Maps. I am trying to keep track of all the jobs I do on Google Maps so that I can be more effective. I map them out so I can tell if I have done something recently. I will try the newer features.
Tom, Great idea for using Google Maps to track your jobs.
Google is coming out with new stuff all the time. Have you seen this? http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/ Pretty wild. Do you think maybe we’ll be paying taxes to Google someday too? :)
I use Google Maps as an app on my phone. I wonder if it has all these features.
Thanks Ryan, I had not seen that.