Microsoft has recently launched its own version of the Street View imaging software dubbed Streetside. These solutions allow users to find locations more quickly on the web.

Services like Google Street View and Bing Streetside instantly teleport web surfers to a huge collection of street views from the most important cities all over the world. However, the panoramic photos these services offer only provide a limited perspective. You cannot travel smoothly down a street – instead, you have to jump from one panoramic bubble to the next.

Microsoft researchers have also come up with a refinement to Bing Streetside called Street Slide. This combines slices from multiple panoramas captured along a stretch of road into one continuous view. This can be viewed from a distance, or smooth scrolled sideways.

When using Street Slide’s panoramic view, you can slide along the façades looking for places of interest, and zoom back to a classic bubble view at any time. You can also flip the viewpoint to see the other side of the street, or turn corners onto new streets.

The wider view provided by Street Slide offers empty space on the screen below the image of the street. This space can be used to display business logos as well as a small map of the area. The space could also be used for advertising, or to display social information, such as the location of friends, if linked up to a social network.

Street View can really make an impact on a mobile device, since it broadens your visual sense to cover a two-block radius. For example, if you’re in an unfamiliar city, you can rapidly scan nearby streets for a café worth visiting.

Being able to visually scan a street is particularly useful in built-up areas, where interference from buildings can limit the accuracy of GPS location fixes. It would be quite something if such technology were to be integrated with social media features and perhaps even augmented reality.

The technology enthusiast has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.