primelocation.com Gives More With Maps

The Digital Property Group owned UK property portal, primelocation.com, is combining use of Microsoft Virtual Earth’s “Bird’s Eye” view with Google’s “Street View” functionality.

While most portals choose one mapping provider over the other, primelocation.com is exploiting both Microsoft and Google’s virtual offerings.

Once they are at a property’s details page, users can choose to get a Bird’s Eye view with Microsoft, or check out the neighbourhood with Google Street View. The default seems to be Microsoft with an option to switch to Google, which opens in a separate pop up window.

Google Street View launched in the UK last month with primelocation.com’s sister website, findaproperty.com, chosen as one of its launch partners. Since then several other property search websites have incorporated it, such as zoopla.co.uk and globrix.com.

Not everyone is overjoyed about the technology, with residents in one English village blocking the path of one of Google’s Street View camera cars last week, over the same privacy concerns which have been a bone of contention with all Street View style mapping programmes. Google has responded by saying homeowners can elect to have their properties removed, and peoples faces are automatically blurred out of any images.

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