Google who acquired Keyhole last year have recently incorporated the satellite imagery within their local search - the results are impressive from a users perspective.

This currently gives users the advantage of physically seeing structures and locations. Again moving one step ahead of their competition, we wonder what technology MSN and Yahoo will combat with?

http://www.keyhole.com/

From an SEO point of view, will this encourage more users to use local search?

This is still not available in the UK, but hopefully is not too far away - I will keep you posted when I have further news on Local Search for the UK.

Related blog:
http://www.search-engine-war.co.uk/2005/04/optimising_your.html

Andrew