New tools from Google you should know about.

Google has been launching new tools left and right, several being very useful to Real Estate buyers and sellers looking for homes online.  The most recent addition has been the homes layer on their Maps functionality.  In select locations (Spokane Included), Google has plotted many of the homes for sale (most likely pulled from their Google Base Service)To access this layer, simply select the “More” tab in the top right of the maps screen and check the checkbox titled “Real Estate.”   Once selected the layer will populate the maps screen with listings.Clicking on a listing in the map will allow the user to view the data on the listing and more detailed information.Example of Listings on Google MapsAnother useful tool provided by Google is their new parcel data included by default on their maps.  The parcels are visible at the closer zoom levels and are synced directly with datasources to provide pretty accurate depictions of parcels.Parcel View From Google.For more information or to try these tools out for yourself, visit Google Maps.  A new Google Navigation (Turn By Turn) tool is due to be out soon too, I can’t wait to see how all of these integrate to make our day to day lives easier.