For a while, Google has been the heavy hitter as far as online maps go. Both Google Maps and Google Earth are amazing applications. I find myself using Google Maps on a daily basis.

However, another behemoth has entered the fray and their map portal has a very unique twist: The beta for Amazon's A9 Maps is now available. What makes their system unique? It seems they have sent vehicles with mounted cameras all around a few select cities and taken millions of photographs of both sides of each street.

Here is an example for you: If you search for 420 Broad Street, Seattle, WA, you are shown a fence and a crowd of people. If you 'drive' to the right, the base of a very unique structure comes into view, which happens to be the Space Needle.

It is not perfect though...if you drive a little further, you can see that an oncoming bus has obscured several frames of that side of the street. Still...a pretty cool tool with some real potential - especially for locating and identifying an address in an unknown area in advance.

And no, my street doesn't come up with any pictures either.