When you go down to street level you can see information like live busyness and nearby traffic, and even look inside restaurants and other places to get an idea of what they're like before you go. With a time slider you can check out what the area looks like at different times of day and in various weather conditions, and thus figure out where the busiest spots are. So, let's say you want to virtually travel to London and 'soar over Westminster to see the neighborhood and stunning architecture of places, like Big Ben, up close'.

So, what's all the fuss about? Immersive view takes Street View and aerial shots to a whole other level, combining them to immerse you into the vibe of a place from wherever you may happen to be in the world. This should initially work for LA, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo, with more cities coming soon after. Later this year, Google Maps is getting something called immersive view, and the name is rather self-explanatory. Google Translate wasn't the only app/service that got some new features announced at Google I/O today - so did Maps.

Google satellite view