Google: We'll help you find a house too!

In a post on its official blog on Thursday, Google emphasized to its readers that you can use the search engine's capabilities for just about everything--including finding a house (in the real world).

If you enter a search query that includes "real estate" or "homes for sale" in it, a drop-down menu for Google Housing Search will pop up. You can then select whether you want to see properties that are up for sale or for rental, and when you do, you'll be directed to a Google Maps display that shows you housing listings indexed by Google.

The company also stressed that real-estate professionals can list their offerings on Google Base for free.

Interestingly enough, searching for "manhattan apartments for rent" did not yield a Housing Search dialog box, but "manhattan homes for rent" did.

To our knowledge, the real-estate search is not new but rather a hint from Google, reminding us that you can use their search engine for a lot more than typical "googling." At this time, we are awaiting a response from the company to clarify this.

It should be noted that in the past few days, real-estate comparison site Zillow.com has been touting upcoming features. Zillow is independently owned but has partnered with Yahoo Real Estate.