Over the last couple of years Google has being going around quietly photographing streets around the world to give people online the chance to see places they’ve never been in splendid 360 degree splendid panoramas. Most of us online types see this as a brilliant step forwards and recognise the convenience and the amount of time you can waste on Google Street View just looking for exotic places or seeing if you can find your childhood house. There are others who aren’t so enamoured with this new technology and are prepared to line the streets of their villages in order to stop Google’s photo cars getting in. Though the big brother theory may be a worrying one, I’m not sure there’s anything sinister to be said about Google Street View, especially since as well as being able to look at residential streets you can browse through vast, boring sections of the M1 for those who have fond childhood memories of lorry spotting.

However it is not all about time wasting! From the point of view of an affiliate, the benefits of integrating Google Street View into your site are just as exciting as when online map technology first emerged. But what type of affiliate site might benefit?

One of the most obvious uses of Google Street View – apart from a bit of casual stalking – is checking up on things when you’re planning to travel, and we all know that there’s a big market for travel online. Whilst Google Earth and the satellite imaging of Google Maps is good for looking at destinations from above and viewing an outline for a route, there’s no way to get a real feel for an area you’ve never been to, and things always look very different when you’re on the ground. However, with Google Street View you can now experience areas as if you yourself were there, which for people travelling to a new place is a bonus. If you run an affiliate website that compares hotel prices, for example, consumers would be able not just to save money with you, but with Google Street View and Google Maps on your site they will be able to find out so much more. The area in which a hotel is located can be viewed in detail without the need for panoramic videos (if they even exist) – and more importantly – without the need for the visitor to navigate away from your site in order to further explore the surrounding area. You are far more likely to get a sale in this way! It’s all about making your services more comprehensive and convenient, integrated and intelligent.

Google Street View can thus be a potentially powerful tool for an affiliate site in providing extended travel information for your visitors. Google Maps will allow the user to enter their address and then their intended destination, plotting a route automatically between the two. Alternatively even if they are not driving they can still check out all manner of other travel links to your destinations, whether road or rail, and of course with Street View they’ll also get a better idea as to what to expect when they arrive. When travel destinations are scattered across the globe and you’re trying to get a handle on a big chunk of the market, the power of Google Street View could well be the feature that helps your site to tip the balance and make further sales.

As with every business, affiliate marketing relies on customer confidence to succeed and sales come from getting people to stick with you and return to your site when they’ve satisfied their initial curiosity. Google Street View is an invaluable tool in both respects, as it carries a well known brand name, unparalleled functionality and ease of use.

In the US, Google Street View was first leveraged by third party sites in the real estate market, where it has proven equally valuable, allowing those looking to buy property to check out the area without having to go there themselves, saving them money and time. The obvious conclusion here is that this could be you. It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to extend this into commercial property sales, letting, rentals and anything related to property or accommodation. Actually you can consider the potential use of Google Street View for anything location-specific: events, theme parks, attractions, corporate hospitality, exhibitions – all of these can potentially add further consumer value with on-the-ground location views.

Hopefully this has given you a few ideas as to the application of Google Street View in an affiliate marketing environment, but the possibilities go far beyond the few we have mentioned here. Hopefully this goes some way towards dispelling the notion that Google simply wants to spy on us with Street View. They’ll be using Google Latitude to do that, but at least that will be a voluntary submission to the big G!

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