Tour your neighborhood on the World Wide Web?

Screen Shot of EveryScape Union Square Demo Navigation

I just finished reading some of my favorite technology blogs and I came across a new internet technology that looks like it has a real potential for the real estate industry. Many of you have already seen Google’s new maps that incorporate a street view feature. It allows the user to place themselves in a location on a Google Map and then brings up a window with a rotatable 360 degree panoramic picture of the location. It is a great way to look at where you are going before you leave the comforts of your home. I highly suggest taking Google’s new street view for a spin.

Yet, a new company called EveryScape, is using Google Maps technology to take neighborhood virtual tours to a new level. They are developing a new technology that will allow the user, as they say, “escape into the real world.” They have a great demo of their interactive 360 degree environment on their site. It allows the user to walk through a neighborhood and to highlight company’s websites and locations in the environment. In the working demo on their home page you can tour the Bay Area’s historic Union Square in San Francisco.

I can see how this could be extremely powerful tool for the real estate industry. Can you imagine how consumers housing preferences could be altered by taking a virtual stroll through a listing’s neighborhood before viewing the home in person? It will be exciting to see where these new technologies lead us.