Wow, it’s hard to believe that a year has passed since Google introduced its Street View feature on Google Maps.

In honor of Google’s launch of “Double the Coverage, Double the Fun” for Street View, Stephen Chau, Product Manager at Google, wrote a very interesting, and nostalgic, “year in review” on the Official Google Blog that provides some valuable insight on Google’s accomplishments with Street View in 2008.

Street View coverage in early 2008:

Street View today after doubling U.S. coverage:

It is fascinating to see the progress made in just one year of Street View. Google did a great job of keeping up a steady pace by gradually adding new U.S. cities to the list, national parks and landmarks, and even adding quirky sights like a giant rocking chair in Indianapolis.

Street View is not limited to the U.S. anymore either. In July of 2008, Street View made its international debut with imagery of the Tour de France route. Now, seven countries can take advantage of Google’s Street View including (the U.S.), France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, and New Zealand, which makes “visiting” some of the world’s most famous attractions and landmarks much easier.

The accessibility and usefulness of Street View have also been improved throughout the year. Street View can now simplify your real estate search, show you bike paths, and make driving directions easier to understand. You can even find Street View on Google Earth and a wide range of mobile devices. Additionally, two weeks ago Google announced some significant changes to the Street View experience designed to make it easier to access and explore imagery.

I’m eager to see the developments Street View will offer in the future, and how it will affect search marketing, particularly in local search. By the looks of things, it seems as though Google has high expectations and big plans for Street View’s continual growth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm by Sheila Hippert and is filed under Google, Search Engine Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.