There are a lot of great companies out there. I use products from dozens of major technology companies. Amazon has recently amazed me with their cloud hosting. I will ALWAYS sing the praises of Rackspace’s fanatical support and you just can’t beat Apple when it comes to innovation and Microsoft when it comes to market domination.

Google Maps - literally taking a picture of every place in the world.

I was recently passed on the highway by one of Google’s mapping cars. These guys literally drive around taking photos of every street – everywhere. Then, all of these photos are somehow put into a viewable experience online. You can actually see what a place looks like – from the ‘street’.

What I love about it is that it represents a corporate attitude of simply providing value to the customer. The fact of the matter is that I rarely ever use anything other than Google Maps when exploring a new location, looking for directions or even getting a first-hand view of what a place really looks like. I do not know if they make money from me, but I am glad to continue to use and recommend their company.

Google: They see everything

9-Eyes.com has put together a great set of ‘best-of’ Google street photos. You should check them out, and then head on over to Google and take advantage of all of their great free tools.