People who are in search of a place to live in the UK have a new ally in Google.  This morning, the search giant introduced a "Properties" option on Google Maps UK, allowing users to see and sort through many of the houses and apartments/flats that are available for sale or rent.

As you might gather from the screenshot below, the "Properties" feature isn’t omniscient; some largish empty spaces exist on the map where it’s hard to imagine at least one residence isn’t unoccupied.

Still, more red dots will often surface if you zoom in, and Google’s managed to strike deals with Countrywide, Ezylet, Property Pal, PropertyLive, SmartNewHomes, Spicer Haart, Vebra, Zoomf, and Zoopla, gaining access to hundreds of thousands of listings.

Also, to stay true to its search background, Google isn’t just presenting the listings and then calling it quits.  A post on the LatLong Blog explained, "The search can be refined by choosing features like sale or rent, bedrooms, bathrooms, and price.  The map will update to show the properties matching those criteria – and also dynamically update as you scroll and zoom around the map until you’ve found your dream spot."

This feature is almost sure to draw more people to Google UK.  Good luck finding a new home if you happen to be one of them.