WalkScore, very useful for a international house hunter.
I'm currently browsing the interweb, checking out houses to either buy or lease in the Seattle area. I came across this site via colleague and I must say, it's quite a great concept and technically well executed.
WalkScore.com simply rates the walking distance on a given location and lets you know what kind of various businesses etc that are around your location.
The only thing that bugs the heck out of me about this solution, is it's not using Live Maps (bleh to Google Maps). I love Virtual Earth at the moment, given it's using PhotoSynth which is hyper cool.
I wish it was in Virtual Earth! :)
https://www.walkscore.com/get-score.php?street=1+Eagle+Street+Brisbane+QLD