If you’ve ever used Google’s Streetview, you know that you can view panoramic images taken from Google’s vehicles (cars, trike, snowmobile).  But that can be slightly limited to the view of those camera toting vehicles.

This is why Google has been integrating user submitted photos for the past year, to give you not only a vehicle view of places, but also a site seeing view.

User submitted photos from services such as Picasa and Flickr are in the mix that give you more angles to see your next destination even before you ever see it up close for yourself.

Just select the location you want to visit on maps.google.com and drag the little streetview guy over to the map.  Once you’ve viewed Google’s streetview, be sure to click on the “User Photos” box in the upper right corner to see lots of other views of the same location, taken at different times of the day, in black and white, etc.

Google Streetview of the Water Tower in Chicago

User submitted photo

So whether you’re  a professional photographer, or just an amateur, your photos can be quite helpful to future visitors to the place you’re photographing.  Those very photos can give future visitors a better sense of that location and it’s surroundings.