NovaLoca Becomes Home to Street Level View, First UK Implementation

Broom, United Kingdom, October 16, 2008 --(PR.com)-- When Ralph McTell wrote “Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London” in 1974, he probably had no idea that in his lifetime it would be possible to do this from the armchair. Web based mapping has developed rapidly over recent years. It is not that long ago that we were amazed by seeing aerial imagery taken vertically above any location in the world. More recently Bird’s Eye was released by Microsoft (which continues to be released in more and more locations) allowing users to view areas at an angle from the north, south, east and west. If that blew you away, then beware of the latest development, panoramic street level imagery which allows the user to view a location as if they were standing on the pavement. Users can pan around as though they are turning their head. Essentially, you explore a city as if you were actually there; the only thing is you have not put a foot outside the front door. Having been released in their maps of major cities across America and France, Google™ has more recently released this Street View imagery in Australia. However, Seety have brought it to the UK and it is about to be implemented for the first time in online commercial property finder, NovaLoca.

Having driven the streets of central London taking 171,103 photographs to date along over 1000 kilometres of road, the images have then been processed to address any privacy issues and the images linked together to generate a seamless London experience which you can ‘walk through’ from your PC. Seety released this imagery on their site earlier this year but have now joined forces with web based mapping specialists, Earthware who have completed the UK’s first implementation of this imagery, to be known as Street Level View into their existing mapping product EarthwareProperty. Having had a long standing relationship with NovaLoca, (Earthware built the NovaLoca site which became the first implementation of EarthwareProperty) it seemed natural that NovaLoca also be the launch place for the first implementation of Street Level View imagery in the UK.

Key to NovaLoca’s success has been using technology to differentiate against similar offerings in its goal to make marketing commercial property easier for agents and finding commercial property easier for occupiers. The site, launched in January 2008, already attracts 65,000 visitors a month, has over 20,000 commercial properties listed and has generated more than 15,000 leads to agents.

NovaLoca are obviously keen to do all they can to attract both agents and occupiers to the site which offers a simple to use search tool, direct means to contact the property agent from the site and the opportunity to save searches to return to later. However, undoubtedly a key asset which sets them apart from their competitors is the mapping implemented by Earthware. Therefore, it is no surprise that Miranda Munn, Managing Director of NovaLoca, was keen to continue the relationship with Earthware and further benefit from the partnership they have with Seety to become the site of a UK first. “At NovaLoca we are trying to push the boundaries of how technology can help our customers demonstrate the value of their properties to potential customers through the web”.

The release of this first implementation of street view will be announced on the NovaLoca blog as well as in the press so check these regularly to hear how the implementation is going or for more information contact Earthware on 0845 642 9880, NovaLoca on 0844 357 5260 or email Seety at info@seety.co.uk.

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