Google Maps Mobile Streetview ... near-Nirvana experience

I’ve been playing around with Google Maps Mobile Streetview. Just brilliant.

In Portugal this weekend, I flicked out my E90 (running an older version, alas) and watched my taxi journey from airport to hotel. There’s something rather reassuring to see your little blue dot heading along unfamiliar streets and highways on the way to your destination.

I caught Google’s latest Maps update from the main Google Blog (although there’s more detail on the Google Mobile blog).

Streetview was, for quite a while, only relevant if you lived in America. In San Francisco this year, I thoroughly enjoyed — and hugely valued — the ability to view actual streets and doors from Google Maps.

Now you can get it on your mobile.

Genius.

The Google Team have made a swish little video demonstrating how it works. Have a watch of this to appreciate just how near-Nirvana the experience is:

So, you’re searching for something, you want decent and quick results, you’re wanting geographic-centric results, you want a bit of reassurance/familiarity with Streetview. Excellent.

This is exactly what I’ve been wanting for a while. Google Maps Mobile is one of my ‘required’ mobile apps on whatever handset I’m using. Streetview upgrades it.

Now I’d like to see the entire world Streetviewed. Particularly the UK.

You can see an example of Streetview in action in San Francisco (on your desktop) with this link. It’s the Moscone West Center, where CTIA September 2008 was held.