May 11, 2009

Microsoft Revamps MSN City Guides With Live Search and Live Maps

MSN City Guides has undergone a makeover and the "after" shot displays Live Search and Live Maps as new accessories, albeit a bit understated. The Live Maps is below the fold and Live Search requires the user to click a button that says "web" near the search box. It then creates a minimized pop-up window with the Live Search results.

The good news is that the featured restaurants and events for my city, Raleigh, are good ones. Asian Cafe is at the top of the list of restaurants on the Live Maps, and they do, indeed, have good food. I also learned that my area has a Restaurant Week (which began last week), something I can't believe I didn't hear about via Twitter. So kudos, City Guides.

Location is not detected via IP (even if signed into Windows Live), therefore users are required to type in their location.

Non-featured cities need a little tweaking. A stock photo is served up on the homepage. The related videos for my city, Raleigh, features the Obama Victory speech, which took place in Chicago and has nothing to do with finding things to do in Raleigh. The site also has trouble loading in Firefox, but, of course, does much better in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 9, 2006

Google, Microsoft And The '3-D Web'

When Microsoft launched its Live Local/Virtual Earth 3-D platform earlier this week, the memorable quote from Virtual Earth GM Stephen Lawler was, "It's the beginning of the 3-D Web." As a factual matter that statement may not be entirely accurate, but symbolically it is.

Numerous companies, such as Planet 9 Studios, have been working on 3-D modeling for a long time. Then, of course, there's Second Life and MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach. Now comes 3B, which allows users to create their own personalized 3-D "villages." There's also the world of avatars, which is growing.

In the larger context of online trends, we're seeing the rise of more imagery and visual information initially exemplified by Flickr and more recently by online video and YouTube. Sharing and community are integral to these experiences. (Also, check out the provocative new demo of Microsoft's Photosynth. Here's a previous post on it.)

Microsoft acquired Vexcel for, among other things, the company's capacity to do automated 3-D rendering. Vexcel CEO John Curlander said that the company is rendering eight cities a month, moving quickly to 16. Accordingly, the Virtual Earth 3-D platform will have well over 100 cities by the end of Q2 next year. By contrast, Google is letting the community build 3-D models, which is proceeding steadily according to Google Earth GM John Hanke. Also, Google has a way to rate/rank the best and most detailed models, among duplicates, for maximum quality ("model complexity.")

You can bet that Google will be accelerating the development of these 3-D models for Earth.

All the coverage in the past week has been around the "red meat" competitive question of whether Microsoft has now surpassed Google Earth with Virtual Earth 3-D. The answer is both yes and no. Yes, in the sense that Microsoft has made 3-D cities broadly accessible by making them available in the browser (though there's still a plug-in to download). No, in that the experience of using Live Local 3-D in the browser is currently much slower than using comparable functionality on Google Earth 4.

Both products have APIs/developer tools that allow third parties to build on top of these "platforms." But let's forget about the "who will win?" issue. Let's look at the bigger picture, which is more interesting anyway.

The question of what's next in search is often posed and left unanswered, because it's very hard to image what might replace the ubiquitous text box. But, in my opinion, a partial answer is starting to emerge. It involves variables of place (local/geo-coding), rich media (images, video, 3-D) and community. I wrote some time ago on this blog about Google Earth as a "geobrowser" and alternative Web-search paradigm.

Almost anything that you can do in text/2-D can be done in a more fun and engaging way in 3-D and/or with video. With limited exceptions pictures are, in fact, worth more than a thousand words.

The Internet is rapidly becoming more "textured" and rich media and community are at the center of that trend. In one corner, social search is being seen by some as a successor to machine algorithms (or at least the future includes some hybrid). In another, "social networking" sites -- which might be now better labeled "social destinations" -- continue to gain more and more consumer traction. In addition, online video is growing fast both as consumer experience and as an online advertising vehicle.

There is much more to discuss in terms of how geo-location, rich media and community play out in search (or "discovery"), as well as the advertising opportunities that may lie on the other side for both large and small businesses. My point is only that the foundation is now being pretty clearly laid for new search and discovery tools and new user experiences that are much more complex and engaging than what exists today.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 4:07 PM | Permalink

October 9, 2006

Windows Live Search Mobile PPCall Deal With Ingenio

A few weeks ago Google introduced sponsored listings into mobile search. Yahoo followed last week. Now Microsoft has partnered with Ingenio to deliver pay-per-call listings into Windows Live Search for mobile. But unlike the other two programs this is not being launched in beta.

Ingenio's advertisers are the only paid listings that will appear when users conduct a geotargeted search on Window Live for mobile. There will only be one advertiser shown for any given search and Ingenio's entire inventory will be funneled into Windows Live. When there are no relevant Ingenio advertisers, no sponsored listings will appear. (The company has existing mobile distribution through Jingle Networks' 1800-Free-411 and go2.)

Since Ingenio announced its original deal with AOL (see example) more than a year ago it has been steadily building distribution with smaller players in the local market. This is obviously a very significant relationship and may be a prelude to a broader deal with Microsoft. Ingenio wouldn't comment on that possibility, however.

Microsoft currently offers "call for free" click-to-call functionality on Live Local.

All three of the dominant search providers have now flipped the switch on sponsored listings in mobile. We should see a continuing acceleration of product development and competition in the wireless space. Early evidence argues that response rates (clicks/calls) in a wireless environment will be much higher than clicks on sponsored listings online because there are fewer competing advertisers (due to smaller screens) and users' needs are typically more immediate.

While the number of users conducting searches in a mobile environment is currently a very tiny fraction of what it is online, mobile search will be a significant channel in the next several years as the user experience improves.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 8:45 AM | Permalink

September 12, 2006

Windows Live Local Better, But Still Not There

Windows Live Local (WLL) came out of beta today along with Live.com and Live Search. Chris Sherman covered the full upgrade and release in his Search Day article. This post will focus on WLL specifically.

Derrick Connell, Microsoft's search business general manager, is quoted as saying that 15% to 20% of search queries are local. (While this estimate may be slighly low, it would mean somewhere between 975 million and 1.3 billion U.S. search queries per month (across all engines) had a local intent. This shows what's at stake in having a good user experience and being able to monetize those queries.

WLL's primary attraction remains its spectacular "Birdseye" aerial photography, which hasn't been duplicated by its competitors. In this release there's about 30% more Birdseye coverage in the US, with an ongoing effort to cover most population centers in the US, UK and EU in the near term.

The WLL team has also beefed up the "details" page for individual businesses with Web search results. Formerly there was only basic contact information and a map. Beyond this, since the last time I wrote about WLL, there haven't been any significant upgrades. Here are the three most recent posts about Live Local and its features:

The aerial photography is great for pinpointing on precisely which corner the W Hotel is located in San Francisco. The Scratch Pad and Collections are very nice (and unique) ways to save and share map data. And the layered results are also useful. Yet there are other areas where Live Local could improve:

Offer reviews and other features to help users make decisions. (Among the big three Yahoo! is the most helpful here, allowing users to sort/refine by rating, location or other criteria.)
Do more passive disambiguation so that users don't have to clarify otherwise self-evident locations (e.g., "SF, CA" means "San Francisco")
Be able to handle non-traditional searches such as "great bars in New York." Windows Live Search does a much better job on this query than WLL

Having said all that, WLL has come a great distance in its short life and we expect Microsoft to continue to make investments to make the product and the user experience better as a integral "vertical" within Live Search.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 5:39 AM | Permalink

August 31, 2006

Tips On Getting Listed In Local Search Results

Patricia Hursh wrote a ClickZ column named Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results. The article goes over the what, why and how on Local Search. In short, how does one get included in the local results you see search engines providing? She recommends that you (1) update your business listings at Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom, (2) submit your site to local engines such as Google Local, MSN Local, Yahoo Local, Ask Local, and TrueLocal, (3) update your Internet Yellow Page listings at YellowPages.com, Verizon SuperPages, and SwitchBoard.com, and (4) make sure to have your address clearly listed throughout your web site.

Don't have time to do all of that, you can pay one of these two companies to do it for you; Relevant Ads or RegisterLocal. Also, if you are interested in understanding who local search engine powers who, see Bruce Clay's and TrueLocal's PDF chart.

Postscript Barry: Although Amacai is related to another sister company, Localeze, it does not actually manage local search content. Localeze, a completely separate company (Amacai is its subsidiary), manages local search content for local merchants.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:04 AM | Permalink

August 2, 2006

What Is 'Photosynth'? Microsofts's 3D Photo Mapping Tool

The first official project/product from Microsoft's Live Labs is called "Photosynth." What is it? It's hard to describe succinctly. It appears to be kind of mashup of things: photo sharing, visual search, mapping and 3-D.

To me, at least conceptually, it's pretty exciting. Here's a video overview from Microsoft. (The video is something of a commercial for Live Labs, but also showcases Photosynth as a very provocative product.)

Earlier this year I did a longish post on Google Earth as an alternative search/browsing paradigm: the "Geobrowser." Google and Microsoft are now in something of a mapping arms race that has little to do with consumer or advertiser demand. And Microsoft, notwithstanding Google Earth's impressive features and developer community, believes it has the edge.

To see what's really interesting about Photosynth and its implications one needs to step back. The Internet began as a text-based medium and is now becoming more and more visually rich. The growth of image search and the meteoric rise of online video are just two examples of this. Online, multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds like Second Life are other examples of emerging, visually immersive online environments.

People have difficulty imagining what search will look like five years from now. But it may in fact be that we collectively look back in a decade or so and see today's text-based search as a quaint precursor to a much more engaging and multi-dimensional search paradigm – literally in 3-D.

According to the video Photosynth was a collaboration among groups at Microsoft, including the Virtual Earth team. The crew at Virtual Earth wants to build a rich, "immersive" visual environment that ties the real and the online worlds together. (I blogged about Microsoft's vision for mapping here.)

Photosynth represents the merger of photosharing, community, search and 3-D mapping, with just a touch of gaming thrown in. Effectively it's an alternative web-search paradigm based on visual imagery. This type of approach doesn't replace the need for text-based search entirely but it could substitute for today's search in a substantial number of cases (especially for anything local or travel).

The vision of creating a "photorealistic" virtual world online is extremely ambitious. But ultimately I believe it's possible – and very exciting. The application will reportedly be available for download later this year.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:02 AM | Permalink

June 13, 2006

Microsoft 'Mix-ins' vs. Google Mashups

Steven Lawler of Microsoft didn't directly mention Google by name, but many of his comments this morning at Where2.0 were directed toward differentiating Microsoft's Virtual Earth platform and Windows Live Local's consumer destination from the company's chief online rival. As part of his very accelerated presentation (15 minutes) he said that Microsoft's goal is to "leverage local information on a global basis" through a mapping interface. That's very much like the message Google presented yesterday.

He added that "The Virtual Earth team is going to make a virtual world where people can quickly jump in and get information in many different dimensions."

Lawler elaborated that Microsoft's goal was to create a "2-D and 3-D model of the entire globe." He used Microsoft's "Birds Eye" aerial and pedestrian-level "Streetside" photography to argue that the company had established a leading position in mapping and now had the best technology and user experience available. As evidence, Lawler pointed to the recent Vexcel acquisition, which included an advanced digital camera for capturing aerial imagery down to 6 inches of resolution.

Lawler said that Microsoft would bring Birds Eye aerial photography to 80% of the U.S. and Europe in the very near future. And he compared the relationship between Birds Eye vs. satellite mapping to HDTV vs. analog TV.

One of the areas of emphasis was on social media/networking and "collections," effectively mashups (Lawler called them "mix-ins") where users bring local data and information to a Virtual Earth mapping interface.

Lawler said that Microsoft was building out its "geocommunity," which includes many non-developers (i.e., regular people). He added that Miscrosoft's installed community base included MSN Spaces and Messenger IM users. Lawler said that that "database" included 14 billion crisscrossing relationships that Microsoft hoped to tap and leverage as part of this geocommunity.

On the subject of how people find user-generated collections and other map-based data, Lawler argued, "What's going to be key is how people discover and share information going forward. The [Virtual Earth] platform is about extracting the data and combining that with imagery."

Posted by Greg Sterling at 2:25 PM | Permalink

June 9, 2006

MSN Windows Live Launches News & Local Live Answers

The MSN Search blog announced that MSN Search now supports news specific and local specific "live answers." What that means is if you do a search on something news related like, george bush at live.com, you will get news related results at the top. Same deal with local specific searches such as, edison, nj dentist. Google, Yahoo and Ask.com all have this type of feature.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:25 AM | Permalink

May 24, 2006

Windows Live Local Adds Traffic and Sharing

Yesterday some people spotted Microsofts roll out of aerial photography in the UK (and Canada). That was part of a set of new enhancements to Windows Live Local that were more fully introduced this morning. (TechCrunch does a nice run-down.)

In addition to the expanded coverage, which will eventually include the rest of Europe, Microsoft has added the following new features:

Real-time traffic reporting
Integration with Outlook
Improved ability to save and share ?personal mashups? with others

This is the third "release" of WLL and reflects some nice improvements, including to the basic maps functionality, which had been lagging MapQuest, Google and Yahoo! in ease-of-use and other areas (I'll do a more comprehensive comparison in the near future.)

The new traffic feature is provided chiefly via a partnership with Traffic.com and makes WLL the second major mapping provider to offer this (Yahoo was the first). The Outlook integration is a nice feature and may introduce a number of users to WLL who weren't already aware of it.

Here's what the release says about the new "social networking" features:

"Collections: Social networking functionality allows customers to create lists of favorite landmarks and locations, upload personal photos and save them to a ?scratchpad.? This allows the Collections to be saved, recalled later, permalinked, and shared with friends and community via email, or through their MSN Spaces blog." The social dimension of this is the most interesting of the new features and offers the most intriguing possibilities. Early-on one of the differentiators of WLL (beyond Birds Eye photography) was the ability to annotate maps and create "personalized mashups" with the scratch pad that can show multiple layers on the map (e.g., favorite London hotels + restaurants, etc.)

Right now there?s no ability to search a public database or index of mashups that people have created (e.g., ?my road trip through New England last fall"). Currently you can share your mashups through MSN Messenger and email via a pull-down on WLL. You can also save a personal favorites list ? yours and others ? on another menu pull-down, ?collections.? The ability to search for other peoples? mashups will come relatively soon. Then the product becomes like Yahoo?s Trip Planner beta, but with a broader range of potential applications.

There are a number of ?monetization scenarios? in this context. Most obvious and immediate would be travel (i.e., booking hotels via the map). But the ?democratization of mashups,? sharing and social elements of WLL offer a range of new possibilities about where mapping can go that we're only beginning to see. Postscript: Gary Price reminded us that MSN Autos has had live traffic for a long time and has alerts (including mobile) as one of the options there.

The display and the maps on Autos aren't quite as nice or usable. But I wonder if these are two disconnected systems. They certainly shouldn't be. And when I was briefed on WLL there was no mention of the Autos capabilities. Mobile alerts aren't yet avilable as part of the WLL offering (one would assume soon). The mapping functionality across MSN should be the Virtual Earth back end. That doesn't yet appear to be the case, but in the near term I would expect it.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 8:04 AM | Permalink

April 18, 2006

TechCrunch Rates Yahoo Maps The Best Mapping Service

TechCrunch has an outstanding review of mapping services offered by Yahoo, Google, MapQuest, Ask.com and MSN. The review takes you through scoring on views, navigation, mapping routes, functional actions and services and pricing. Overall, Yahoo maps wins over the other mapping services.

Yahoo Maps was by far the best application tested. Its fast Flash interface, multipoint directions, live traffic information, and easy send-to-mobile feature make it the hands down winner. It also features the most robust API options.

Read the full review at TechCrunch. Oh, I have my own little and un-comprehensive review on mapping services based on driving to Toronto next week.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:28 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2006

SDForum To Host GeoSearch & Mapping Session With Google, Yahoo, MSN, & Ask.com

Search SIG announces that Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com will be on a panel named MapOFF! to take place at Yahoo headquarters on April 11th. The panel includes Jeremy Kreitler of Yahoo, Thai Tran of Google Maps, Alex Daley of Microsoft Virtual Earth and Andy Yang of Ask.com, moderated by Brady Forrest of Microsoft. More information on the event here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:54 AM | Permalink

March 31, 2006

MSN Local Adds Send To Mobile Phone Feature

Russell Beattie reports that MSN Local has added "Send To Mobile" feature from your business listing. For example, go to my listing here and you will see a link under the address that says, "Send to Mobile." Click on it and a DHTML popup will ask you to input your mobile number. I tried it myself and it sent a text message, with a mobile link to my Treo. Russell accurately notes that Yahoo Local has a similar feature, just the link placement is at the top of the result, on the right and the text used is "Sent to Phone". See my Yahoo Local listing here, to see for your self.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:18 AM | Permalink

February 4, 2006

Targeting Local Searchers

Although SEM on local search verticals bears many resemblances to global search marketing, there are subtle nuances and differences in searcher behavior that you need to take into account to ensure a successful campaign. ClickZ columnist Phil Stelter is devoting his next few columns to the art of SEM for local search verticals, kicking off the series with a Q&A with MSN, specifically looking at the Search Local (beta) and Windows Live Local services. Targeting Local Audiences With Search, Part 1: MSN is packed with great advice for reaching people searching in the virtual 'hood.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 3:22 PM | Permalink

January 12, 2006

MSN & SuperPages.com In Local Ads Agreement

SuperPages.com local advertisers now appear in MSN local search results. Type in a query, such as deli, New York or dentist, Dallas and superpages ads are displayed at the top of the page, above local search result listings.

Backfill ads appear to be generic—for example, a search for books in Seattle displays ads for Overstock.com, Simply Audio and discount magazine subscriptions.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 4:25 PM | Permalink

December 14, 2005

Windows Live Location Finder & Privacy

Microsoft has responded to user concerns about the type of information that's transmitted and used when you use the new Windows Live Local "locate me" feature. From a blog post by Chandu Thota, SDE Lead of the Microsoft Virtual Earth team:

No personal information such as your name or contact information is sent to Microsoft by Location Finder service. Also, Location Finder service was designed with concern for your personal information; secure methods such as SSL are used when transferring location information between your machine and the Microsoft location service.

The post also notes that no information is shared, and offers a bit more technical detail about how the feature works. Reassuring information if you're concerned when you use this cool new feature from Microsoft.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 7:02 PM | Permalink

December 8, 2005

Windows Live Local Beta is Now Online; Some Global Imagery Also Added

Although they said it would go live at Noon EST, the Windows Live Local service that we wrote about yesterday is now online. Lots of details in yesterday's post plus I've linked to the complete news release here.

One question I've been asked is what cities "bird's eye" imagery will be available for. Here's the list:

According to the web site, they have "more cities" with "Bird's Eye images" that can "fit on one page" (that sounds a bit silly) but nevertheless they do offer a list of some major metro areas. + New York City, NY + San Francisco, CA + Boston, MA + Los Angeles, CA + Washington, DC + Seattle, WA + Philadelphia, PA + Las Vegas, NV + Atlanta, GA + Albuquerque, NM + Indianapolis, IN + Lexington, KY

No Chicago available? Yes, that appears to be the case. I went looking to take a "closer" 45-degree (bird's eye view) look at McCormick Place. I found the location, no problem, but was unable to get the bird's eye view According to the site, more cities will be coming soon. I would bet this has a lot to do with what Pictometry can supply MSN Live with. More about this MSN Live Local supplier in yesterday's post.

Steven Lawler, GM of Virtual Earth, told me that Chicago is on the short-list of cities. Actually, new material can be added very rapidly using (even between releases) and in reality locations are generally added by county. Let's hope MS Live Local promotes when new areas are placed into the system.

Lawler added that Virtual Earth now includes imagery from the USGS, Harris, Pictomery (the bird's eye views), and others. He said that as of today about 25% of the U.S. has bird's eyes views available and the orthography (overhead imagery) for areas that don't have these views has also been added to and enhanced. Of course, how close you can zoom-in is determined by the location and imagery itself. Plans call for 90% of the U.S. to have bird's eye imagery. However, no timeline was provided. New areas to fly and add to the database are determined by several factors including population and the amount of tourism an area receives. Yes, people like to see where they are going. (-:

While the oblique or "bird's eye imagery" comes from Pictometry, the viewing and searching technology was built by Microsoft.

Lawler said that they are "actively flying right now" to get new imagery into the system. The late Autumn is a good time since in many areas, the leaves have fallen from the trees," he added.

Eventually, plans call for these types of services available globally. In the mean time and speaking of globally, MS Live Local from MSN Virtual Earth has added global imagery to the database from Harris. You can read more about it in this news release.

"The 15-meter Global Dataset produces gorgeous imagery that will be a perfect addition to the visualization applications in Microsoft's Virtual Earth...Features of imagery available through 15-meter Globe Dataset include advanced tonal balancing of realistic earth colors resulting in true-life visual scenarios."

I've found since this data is so new that the best way to find this imagery is begin with a map of the globe and then zoom-in to the location you want. I hope Microsoft adds global locations to their search database soon along with more detailed imagery. As an example, here's an image of Germany and environs.

Bird's eye Imagery Ok, now for what you've been waiting for a look at what I have to say is some cool stuff. The oblique and "bird eye" views that Live Local provides. I can't say enough times that the best way to become familiar with this is to use it. It's easy.

Here we go:

1) Enter a location where bird's eye imagery is available. 2) In the "where box" I'm going to enter the space needle, Seattle, a 3) A box appears labeled "1" with links to zoom, get directions, and/or email a link to the location/image. 4) Now,on the left side of the page note the top box. From here you're able to click and see the aerial view link (what you should be seeing), view a road map, OR click for "Bird's Eye." 5) You should also spot a slider to zoom-in or out, a box to toggle labels (streets, etc), and direction arrows. 6) So, go ahead and click "Bird's Eye." 7) Wow! 8) Now a new image should appear, it's so clear and a new set of boxes on the left side of the page. 9) The direction arrows allow you to look in any direction you select. Note, as you select a direction new thumbnails appear. Click North! 10) You'll also notice a box with two icons. The smaller one offers a smaller image (duh) while the larger one really provides detail. 11) Of course, you can move around by dragging your cursor over the page 12) Right clicking on any image gives you the option to add a push-pin or get directions to that specific location, an address is not required, very useful. 13) From the VE Blog: "Remember that in Birds eye mode you can ROTATE your view optically to really check out an area. You do this by clicking the rotation arrows in the navigation panel. Almost all of the places where we have birds eye imagery will have rotated views available. if a particular orientation isn't available, it will be grayed out."

As you move around you can get a complete view of the area. You can use the scratch pad to take you back to your original location.

OK, now it's your turn. I'll leave you with three bird's eye images: + this one of the Horeshoe Falls at Niagara Falls + The Bellagio Hotel and The Strip in Las Vegas + Part of the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Move around to see more.

Fast Facts and Thoughts + A a question I received. Downloads are required to view "bird's eye" imagery.

+ Notes to MS: What about placing a date the image was taken on each image? Also, would it be possible to see the various views in larger thumbnails. Right now, it's tough to review.

+ Virtual earth.msn.com now redirects to this new site.

+ As noted earlier, driving direction are now available.

+ Contextually-based sponsored link(s) from Yahoo Search Marketing appear in box (right side of page) after search.

+ Labels (aka hybrid view) of street and key locations can be toggled on and off from the "help box" located on the right side of page. That's also where you'll find arrows to move imagery and slider to zoom in and out. Of course, you can also drag maps to new location.

+ Searching is straightforward and nothing we haven't seen before. Search by company name, business category, and/or location (street name, address, Zip). You can also search by just entering a specific location (Space Needle) or street address.

+ The MS Live "Location Finder" has been updated and can be downloaded. It will use either Wi-Fi or your ISP to help find your present location. This service has been available prior to today. You can also use the service without a download and find your location via IP. When trying to locate via IP it was very general. Just about the entire Chesapeake region was shown. The location finder is the one and only service that requires ActiveX. So, my experience with it was better with IE than with Firefox.

+ Add push-pins anywhere on an image/map by right clicking.

+ Your personal scratch pad remembers where you've been and makes returning a click away. It's still possible to mail and/or blog your pad.

Posctscript: For some thoughts about this and similar services, see the conclusion of my post from yesterday. Cool, ABSOLUTELY! But will the imagery or any other aerial imagery help my sister find and select a shoe store? Of course, this technology has applications in many areas like weather forecasting, real estate, urban development, emergency services, etc.

Postscript 2: More things to look at. Another company that is doing work in geographical imagery is Skyline Software. Download their TerraExlporer app (free) and flyover and various cities around the globe and look at building and other locations from various angles.

Postscipt 3: Aerial imagery can be useful when buying a home. Take a look at HomePages.com. Listings, info on what homes in an area just sold for, local data and more. Blog post here.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:26 AM | Permalink

December 7, 2005

Confirmed: Windows Live Local Coming Tomorrow With Cool Aerial Imagery

SEW Blog can now officially report that Windows Live Local, the new local search + aerial imagery service, will go live online beginning at 9am PDT on Thursday.

I've posted a screen cap of a Windows Live Local page with a view of Times Square and another of the Statue of Liberty. Of course, images will be much larger in your browser.

Where: The new service, will be located at http://local.live.com (again, not live until 9am PST Thursday), contains a range of new capabilities. The most visible of these features is a new 45-degree bird's-eye view of major U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle and Las Vegas. Covering about 25 percent of the U.S. by population, these bird's-eye images are captured by Pictometry International Corp. via low-flying airplanes and then integrated with road and satellite maps to simulate 360-degree panoramas that can be viewed from four compass directions.

Not Just Imagery

From the news release: Uusers will be able to point to anyplace on the map that interests them and immediately calculate directions to it. Now, even if the user doesn't know the address or name of a place ? such as a park, shopping mall, parking garage or other spot that is hard to identify by address or name ? he or she can simply point, click and get directions to that location. In addition, the new service provides a range of new driving direction capabilities, including step-by-step directions using bird's-eye or satellite views, identification of construction areas along a specific route, and several innovative print options such as print-only directions, the addition of notes to printed directions, and thumbnail pictures of each turn in the route.

Pushpins will also become available to mark important locationd and shared via IM, e-mail, Web logs, ot MSN Spaces.

August 26, 2005

Research from Microsoft: Personalized Search, Determining a Query's Dominant Location, and Much More

The other day I posted about a paper presented at the SIGIR conference a few week's ago. Apparently, that got Findory CEO, Greg Linden, looking for other papers from the conference. Well, he found, "Personalized Search via Automated Analysis of Interests and Activities" from Microsoft Research. Greg shares a few thoughts about it in this GWG blog post.

Another paper and a very interesting read from Microsoft Research (also presented at the SIGIR conference), is titled: Detecting Dominant Locations from Search Queries (PDF). This Search-Science blog post provides a summary.

Want More? Here's a selected list of other search-related research papers that MSR presented at SIGIR. The links will take you to an abstract where you'll also find access to the full text.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:16 PM | Permalink

August 14, 2005

Microsoft Adds Local Search and MSN Spaces to MSN Mobile

MSN is joining many other players (the big names as well as many smaller companies) by adding local search* (listings from Yellow and White Page directories) to the MSN Mobile service. Each entry also contains links to a map and turn-by-turn driving directions. More on MSN Search's WebLog. You can demo the beta (along with a beta of a mobile version of MSN Spaces using this url on a non-mobile browser. Learn more about MSN's mobile services here.

* The location box on the mobile search interface lets the user enter a location, Zip Code, or postal code. As expected, US locations/Zips work fine. However, I tried using Canadian locations and postal codes and came up empty.

Btw, in April I blogged about another mobile service from MSN that I find useful. Up-to-the-minute traffic reports delivered via SMS (text messaging.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:11 PM | Permalink

July 25, 2005

MSN Releases Beta Version of Virtual Earth

Last May, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates began touting MSN Virtual Earth, the company's response to Google Earth. Gates demonstrated striking 45-degree oblique views of Manhattan with beautiful 3-D images of buildings—something Google Earth could only provide using boxlike geometric shapes.

MSN Virtual Earth launched today, but without those luscious images that Gates promised. The program also lacks the smooth interface offered by Google Earth, though it does have a few interesting features that Google Earth doesn't offer, at least for now. Also, we know Microsoft has found religion when it comes to search, and has backed its efforts with smart people and money, so despite the rough edges, I'm optimistic about what we'll eventually see with Virtual Earth. Today's SearchDay article, Microsoft Launches MSN Virtual Earth, has more.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:00 AM | Permalink

June 20, 2005

MSN Opens Local Search & Aerial Mapping

MSN Search has just released a local search tool (beta) for the U.S. MSN Local Search is accessible via a link on the MSN Search home page or via this direct link.

Basics Search by entering your keywords (name, business category) along with a location (Chicago, IL). For example: automobile dealers, Chicago IL.

You can run a local search directly from the MSN Search homepage by entering your search and clicking the "Local" search tab. If you don't specify a location here, MSN Local Search uses the default location entered in the "location" box on the MSN Search settings page.

MSN Local Search evolves out of the ?Near Me? feature that debuted on MSN Search last year and allowed consumers to receive search results tailored to a specific location. Chris discusses it in this SearchDay article.

MSN Local Search results pages consist of: + Listings (Name, Address, Phone Number). Each listing is given a letter that corresponds to a "numbered pin" on a map (using MSN MapPoint technology) for easy identification.

Similar to what Google Maps and Maps24.com offer, you can change locations on a map by simply dragging the map to a new location. Note to MSN: I think an option to make the map larger would be useful, similar to what's available on Maps.msn.com. You can also zoom in or out or move to a new location by clicking.

+ Along with maps, aerial images are available for most locations. You can toggle between a map and an aerial image via a link located directly above the map or image. You can move to a new location by simply dragging. Aerial imagery is powered by TerraServer-USA. TerraServer is operated by Microsoft as a research project for developing advanced database technology. The images themselves come from a variety of sources including the U.S. Geological Survey.

+ In addition to local listings, results pages also contain 10 results from the MSN web database and keyword advertising if available.

+ You can also search by phone number.

Odds and Ends + In some cases, up to three local listings will appear at the top of a web search results page along with a direct link to access more results.

+ MSN Local remembers the last geo location searched for. So, if you first search for "hotels buffalo, NY" and then want to immediately find restaurants in Buffalo, you don't need to reenter the location.

+ This help page provides info about removing or modifying a listing from the database, search tips, and more.

Finally Tonight's announcement from MSN Search also formally welcomes MSN Virtual Earth to the MSN Search team. It notes that the new service will go live, later this calendar year." What's Virtual Earth? More here and here.

Btw, what's old is new again and this time it's hot. A couple of years ago, MapQuest provided (PDF) aerial/satellite images from GlobeXplorer linked to every location in the MapQuest database. No one seemed to care. Now, post-Google satellite/aerial imagery, this type of material has captured the attention of many researchers.

Postscript: Four other tools that might be of interest. + TerraFly Satellite and aerial imagery PLUS local information (census data, schools, nearby cities, and much more). Overview here.

+ World Wind from NASA Manipulate satellite and aerial imagery. Free download. Data comes from a number of repositories including TerraServer. Overview here.

+ Want to access aerial imagery direct from a USGS database for free? Start here.

+ 192.com provides free access to aerial imagery for many UK locations.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:02 PM | Permalink

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month

Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints & Permissions

Privacy Policy
Affiliates

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-564586-7"); pageTracker._setDomainName(".searchenginewatch.com"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); window.collarity_appid = "incmedia"; //> //>

Top Jobs

more Jobs

Account Manager
Varick Media Management New York, United States

Reporting and Data Analyst
Varick Media Management New York, United States

Director of Marketing Communications
Avery Dennison Brea, United States

Publisher
Confidential Leading Publisher New York, United States

White Papers

more Research