Maps, Aerial Images and Yellow Pages

All Real Estate Is Local... How can real estate professionals benefit from new web tools under development for local search?

Want to (virtually) walk up and down a Manhattan street? Go to Amazon. Click Yellow Pages in the left-hand column (under "New Stores"). Search for Ray's Pizza in New York, NY.

Select the first location ( 27 Prince Street). Now walk the block with your mouse running over the thumbnail images (below the large image). Or click links to walk adjacent blocks.

Amazon's images are not heart-stopping, but they do provide a flavor for the neighborhood. (The company has stored 20 million curb-side images for 10 U.S. cities). Has anybody used Amazon's Yellow Pages to research listings or facilitate a transaction?

How about Google's free service, Google Maps? Search for "pizza Chicago" (without quotation marks). Click "A," Connie's Pizza, and then the "Satellite" link in the upper right-hand corner. Zoom in using the vertical scale to the left.

Google also offers a subscription service, Google Earth (previously Keyhole) at $29.95 for the Consumer edition or $599 for the Professional edition. But it's free for a seven-day trial. So I downloaded the Professional version and zoomed into Connie's Pizza at 2373 S. Archer Ave., Chicago.

Wow, you go quickly from deep outer space to 2,090 feet above the address (just like "Star Wars"). Click "Roads" and you'll see a street map superimposed on the image. Click "Tilt" to provide a more familiar perspective. Both make it easier to figure out exactly where you are. So I'm wondering, does anybody use Google Earth in their business? How?

Finally, Microsoft announced this week the launch of Virtual Earth in the summer of 2005 based upon Pictometry's oblique aerial images shot by its "fleet of small planes." (Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2005) Pictometry's grandiose tagline is "See Everywhere, Measure Anything, Plan Everything." ... Hmm, we'll see. Stay tuned.

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--Peter Pike