ReadWriteWeb

Google just announced a nice addition to its Street View feature in Google Maps. Starting today, you will be able to see the names of local businesses as you move through a town in Street View. A click on one of these names will bring up the standard Google Maps business listing with the name of the business, hours, phone number, address and reviews. According to Google, these new "local business annotation" in Street View are the first step in the company's plans to enhance the discoverability of content in Street View.

Street View in Google Maps is a somewhat controversial feature, but there is no denying that it is quite an interesting product. Until now, however, navigation along streets was a bit difficult, but Google just introduced a new, smarter way to navigate Street View's panoramas. Instead of having to click from one arrow to the next, you can now simply double-click anywhere in an image and Google will take you to this point. In addition, Street View now also recognizes the facades of buildings and will show a rectangle when you mouse over a house. Thanks to this, you can now also easily zoom in to any spot in an image by just double-clicking.