When Google Street View launched in South Africa a few weeks ago I’m sure overall productivity took a dip as everyone searched for their own homes and of course those of their exes, friends and family.

Google Street View launched in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and according to Google “their cars have driven about 40 000 miles across South Africa.”  At the moment Street View covers 27 cities and towns including major cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.

One of the major benefits of Street View is that it makes flat or house hunting a lot easier.  You no longer have to drive to look at the surrounding area at the new place you are considering, you can do it from the comfort of your home.  With Street View you can see what type of shops are in close proximity, how the house or flat looks from the outside and what you neighbours’ places look like.  The eliminating process got so much easier!

The same goes for researching hotels, guest houses or holiday accommodation.  You no longer have to take their word that it is ‘a 5-star facility’ – you can check for yourself.  For those of us that are better directed by landmarks rather than maps, you can use Street View to check landmarks before you go to your next meeting.

It would be interesting to see how often Google is going to update the Street View images and what embarrassing South African Street View images we’re going to see  

GStreetSightings.com is dedicated to the best Google Street View sightings and some of them are very interesting indeed – go take a look!