April 11, 2008

Microsoft Updates Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D

Microsoft has announced an update to their Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D. There are 11 major updates including:

1. Export your Collection to Your Navigation/GPS device. 2. Improved 3D cities. 3. 3D modeling with 3DVIA 4. Labels for Birds Eye imagery 5. 1-Click Directions (Party Maps) 6. MapCruncher Integration (MapCruncher is a raster map mashup tool.) 7. Enhanced Explore of Map Content from across the web contributed by other People 8. Neighborhood Subscribe via GeoRSS 9. Tour Enhancements including Hi-Def Movies. 10. Directions and Traffic Enhancements 11. Improved display of KML files including Google MyMaps links

According to the Virtual Earth Team blog, the update involved a bigger release than originally planned. They are also upgrading Map Control, an SDK for developers, to version 6.1.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:51 AM | Permalink

December 12, 2007

Microsoft Acquires UK Mapping Provider

Microsoft significantly expanded its mapping capabilities in Europe with the acquisition of Multimap, a UK-based online and mobile mapping company. Multimap will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, within the Online Services Group alongside Virtual Earth and Live Search.

Multimap offers a consumer-facing mapping site that also provides local services via partners, including hotel, holiday-cottage, and restaurant-booking services. Multimap's location-based business services include mapping, proximity searching, routing, aerial images with map overlay, local information, and weather.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:57 PM | Permalink

December 26, 2006

Vertical Strategies in Local Search

Just before the holiday weekend, Bill Slawski had an interesting post at his SEO by the Sea blog. The qualities of online search make it a natural fit for local he contends. This can be seen by the degree to which local has been emphasized within Google (Google Local), Yahoo! (Yahoo! Local), Microsoft (Windows Live Local), and most recently, Ask (AskCity).

But the real opportunity in Local could be in vertical segmentation, he argues. Increased verticalization has in fact gained steam over the past year with the introduction and development of many successful vertical destinations such as Zillow and Trulia in Real estate and Oodle and LiveDeal in classifieds. This “verticalization” of Local Search was a pervasive theme at the Kelsey Group's ILM:06 show last month.

Some of the advantages of a vertical search strategy include a refined corpus of data which increases the likelihood of relevant results within a category that a user is presumably interested in (going by their presence on the site in the first place). This increased relevance can lead to higher click through rates and higher intent to buy.

Some local shopping destinations such as NearbyNow enjoy these advantages because someone searching for “sunglasses” in their local area is more likely to be looking to find a place to buy them. Compare this to a Google search where the user's intent isn't as easily discernable (they could be in a research stage, many steps before a purchase decision and, ultimately, a transaction).

So vertical search can be valuable, but it also doesn't come without its own set of challenges. Use cases are different across vertical categories so different rules and interfaces should be applied for optimal experiences. This challenge is particularly relevant to the local products of search giants mentioned above. These local search offerings are all grounded in a map interface, however a map isn't as relevant in some categories as others.

A map that plots the locations of local landscapers isn't as valuable as one that plots local movie theaters (landscapers come to you). However the map interface dominates search results in both of these categories (and all others) in Google Local, Yahoo Local, et al.. For landscapers, plumbers, roofers and other service categories, user reviews or credentials might represent a better use of this space.

Still, there are many challenges in creating these rules and varying interfaces across vertical categories. The same challenge faces internet yellow pages companies such as yellowpages.com. Smaller vertical players can meanwhile create experiences that are more customized to the use case of that category, but they can't scale to the degree that a Google or a Yahoo! can.

Perhaps the best of both worlds is to build a “house of brands” strategy that brings together many individual vertical brands under one roof. The Classified Ventures family of online classified destinations (cars.com, apartments.com, HomeGain) has done this to some degree, but many believe the slow moving nature of their newspaper owners (Belo, Gannett, McClatchy, Tribune and Washington Post) has held this consortia back from reaching its potential. It's still an interesting model and one to watch – and possibly model after - in the coming year.

Posted by Mike Boland at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 13, 2006

New Release of Virtual Earth Launched

The Windows Live Local blog reports on a new build of Virtual Earth. This version has features that will especially appeal to walkers, runners and bicyclists. It has new tools for drawing and measuring that can be creatively used to determine bicycle and running routes. In the new version of Virtual Earth, as the user employs the drawing tool a convenient tooltip reports the distance. When users share their favorite loops and routes drawn using the tools in Virtual Earth, the distance is displayed in the Collection Viewer. Not only can you plot and share your own favorite routes on Virtual Earth, but you can also discover routes plotted by other users. The new build includes other enhancements, but the features around drawing are the most exciting .

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 10:25 PM | Permalink

November 16, 2006

Sprint Launches Mobile Search Relationship With Microsoft

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint has launched mobile (local) search has part of a broad new strategic relationship with Microsoft, "allowing its subscribers to use their phones to look up information on local businesses and events and find downloadable multimedia content such as ringtones, videos and games." (Here's the Microsoft release.)

According to the article, the new Microsoft-powered search will appear on the "home page of Sprint's browser." The local search component of the partnership will be monetized with advertising. But there's ambiguity in the way the WSJ describes the ad model and I haven't yet had a chance to discuss this with either party.

Here's how the WSJ describes the advertising aspect of the deal. "The local-search component offers a new revenue stream as well: Businesses can bid to be listed as sponsored links in the local-search directory and will pay a fee when consumers click those links to call them through the service."

So the clicks initiate phone calls to merchants. Whether these placements will be separately auctioned and billed as "calls" or as "clicks" is not clear. I'm assuming this is PPCall advertising and will be priced accordingly.

Microsoft is currently monetizing local search online at MSN search and Live Local through its relationship with SuperPages.com, which includes local PPC and PPCall advertisers. It separately has an exclusive relationship with Ingenio to provide PPCall advertisers for the mobile version of Live.com. Whether advertisers in the Sprint deal are being provided via either or both of those Microsoft relationships is not clear at this moment.

Regardless, the move will likely boost AdCenter's fortunes in the near-to-medium term, with Sprint as a mobile distribution partner. It also further solidifies PPCall as an ad vehicle well suited to mobile.

Sprint has an existing mobile local search relationship with InfoSpace, whose downloadable FindIt application works with Java-enabled Sprint GPS phones. Recently, Sprint also announced a deal with Google's new Java-based "GMail for mobile" initiative. But this is a broader and deeper involvement with Microsoft at the level of the carrier deck.

The WSJ article discusses some of the other partnerships between U.S. carriers and mobile search vendors, such as JumpTap and Medio Systems.

If one steps back, what may now be emerging is a kind of mobile search/feature war among the carriers that may trump their collective concern about being relegated to "dumb pipe" status. Sprint has apparently thrown that conventional wisdom to the wind in its most recent announcements with Google and now Microsoft. The emphasis seems, instead, to be on providing the best mobile search and user experience -- as it should be -- in their competition with other carriers for customer acquisition and loyalty.

There's something of an irony here in that on Windows Mobile smartphones (I have the Sprint PPC-6700) the mobile IE browser is the focus of the mobile Web-search experience. In that context, the mobile search experience is much more a duplication – albeit comparatively weak – of the online experience. What that means is the Window Mobile OS (on smartphones) is likely to merely replicate the market position of Google (or Yahoo) rather than boost Live.com or this new Microsoft-powered Sprint mobile search.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 2:34 AM | Permalink

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

November 6, 2006

Windows Live Local Gets "Virtual Earth" 3-D Cities

Tomorrow Microsoft will bring dramatic 3-D mapping to the browser window. Windows Live is set to launch photorealistic 3-D imagery for the "urban core" of 15 U.S. cities: San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas and Fort Worth. An image of virtual San Francisco, as provided by Microsoft, is above.

Microsoft has already built out 3-D terrain imagery on a near global basis and the company has said it wants to expand 3-D imagery to all major U.S. cities and those around the globe.

The 3-D imagery will be another view, available beside the 2-D existing aerial views, which include Bird's Eye. Microsoft already offers real-time traffic information and will do so in the 3-D environment as well. All the features of Live Local, including collections and local listings will be available in the 3-D environment.

And yes, advertising will be happening within the 3-D product. There will be, for example, brand advertising on 3-D billboards and on virtual building sides. According to the press release, "Similar to billboards on the side of roads, virtual billboards will be available throughout Live Search in the 3-D view. The ads available within the Virtual Earth 3-D experience are created using a combination of technologies from Virtual Earth, Massive Inc. technology, and the advertising platform from Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions."

Here's virtual Seattle, complete with virtual billboards:

Can't see them? Look to the right in the image above, and you'll see the one shown in the close-up below:

As it hasn't been sold, a "test pattern" style image serves as a placeholder.

Here's another unsold billboard close-up, to the right of the Space Needle:

Consider also that video can be embedded in these slots as well. There are also numerous e-commerce scenarios.

Recently, brand advertisers have been tripping over themselves to get into the virtual world Second Life. Live Local 3-D isn't that far away, representing an interesting evolution of dynamic mapping toward gaming. To that end, there are many social media possibilities in the new 3-D environment – Collections is just the beginning.

Last year Microsoft bought Vexcel a company that developed a super high resolution camera and 3-D rendering technology, among other technology. Microsoft's Erik Jorgensen said that most of the 3-D rendering in the new views of Live Local were done on an automated basis, with some minor human intervention after the fact. This means the company can scale these 3-D models quickly for cities around the globe.

Taking a step back, the mainstream use case of mapping is still driving directions. But don't dismiss this as novelty. The engagement that 3-D mapping will drive will be considerable and the browser availability will make the product more accessible to audiences than Google Earth is currently, as a download.

As more and more layers of information are embedded in 3-D mapping it moves from novelty to utility. There's much more the think about and discuss with the new product, which I haven't yet been able to test. But it's safe to say that this is a dramatic next step in online mapping and that the whole segment is just getting more and more interesting.

Postscript From Danny: The latest feature sounds great, but unfortunately the name will be confusing to some. To recap:

MSN Virtual Earth was announced back in May 2005 (see MSN Virtual Earth To Take On Google Earth. Virtual Earth was to feature "Bird's Eye" view of buildings.

MSN Local Search (with "flat" aerial maps) launched in June 2005.

MSN Virtual Earth launched in July 2005 but without the Bird's Eye images.

MSN Virtual Earth became Windows Live Local in December 2005 and gained the bird's eye images. The former "Virtual Earth" name (which was excellent) got sucked up by the Microsoft turning all of its search properties into the Live brand. Virtual Earth only survived as a "powered by Virtual Earth" mention o the Windows LIve Local site.

Now "Live Local" is being reduced to simply "Live" or "Live Search" but Virtual Earth is coming back, at least in the press release, as "Virtual Earth 3D."

The maps are now live, and you can get to them via either:

http://local.live.com http://maps.live.com

Well, supposed to be live. They're promised, but so far, I can't get any of them to render.

In addition, Firefox is not supported. You want to see the 3D cities? You gotta use IE6 or IE7, then download a 500K setup file, then downloading another 5MB file. That's a pain, and a far bigger download than Microsoft suggested would be required when I spoke with them about the new service. Then again, Google Earth is a 15MB download.

Postscript 2 From Danny

Got it working now on a different computer. If you don't see buildings, have patience. It can take a minute or two for them to start slowly appearing. Here's Las Vegas from a live shot:

Yes, that looks like a Pac Man monster on the side of the Luxor pyramid. But it's not -- instead, from the Microsoft press release image here, it's a promo for the play Hairspray.

Here's a live shot of San Francisco to compare against the image Microsoft sent earlier, at the top of this article:

The quality isn't as good, but it's certainly not bad. Many more non-live photos can be found in the release.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 5:05 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

July 20, 2006

Windows Live Local Worth Another Look

Windows Live Local debuted with a splash with most attention focused on its spectacular "birds eye" aerial imagery. Since then, Microsoft has worked to improve the service, improving the user interface and adding unique features not found in other local search services. SEW correspondent Greg Sterling puts Windows Live Local through its paces in today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look at Windows Live Local.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 2:20 PM | Permalink

July 11, 2006

SuperPages Upgrades Maps With Microsoft

I never saw a press release. But today I discovered that SuperPages, which had dynamic mapping almost before anyone else in local (though it was "cludgey"), has upgraded the mapping on its site using the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. The "new" maps are much nicer and easier to use than the last time I checked, which was admittedly a long time ago.

While there is aerial photography, there's no "Birds Eye" view here. YellowPages.com licensed Virtual Earth, including Birds Eye, several months ago.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 5:44 PM | 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

May 23, 2006

Windows Live Local Maps UK With Aerial Imagery

Loren Baker spotted a LiveSide post noting that Windows Live Local has added UK aerial imagery coverage. LiveSide explains that they are still lacking Birds-Eye feature at many UK cities, but expect improvements to that feature by the "end of the summer."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:41 AM | Permalink

May 8, 2006

Microsoft Accelerates Mapping

Mapping has already become one of the most competitive arenas online -- a visual version of local search. Barry posted earlier about how Microsoft wants to enable dynamic updating of online maps with traffic and other local data in real time. Last week, as I posted on my blog, the company announced the well-known acquisition of Vexcel corporation. Vexcel is a "remote sensing" and mapping company that enables, among other things, extremely high resolution aerial photography and 3-D mapping.

Microsoft is investing very heavily in maps and map-related technology. It sees mapping as an opening in its struggle against Google and now considers itself the technology leader in mapping. Virtual Earth, like Google and Yahoo!, has an API and the company is starting to license its product to companies like Zillow and YellowPages.com. Google remains ?ahead? in terms of the proliferation of its maps and use of its API. (According to Philipp Lessen, Google has started serving AdWords in Google Earth.)

Because of the importance of mapping both "generically" to consumers and as an entry point for local search, neither Google nor Yahoo! can afford to allow Microsoft to break out in this area. Thus I would expect to see more investment and an acceleration of product development in the near term.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Microsoft To Map The World In Real Time?

The TechnologyReview.com has an interesting article explaining a project at Microsoft named SenseWeb, that will strive to enable Windows Live Local to have real-time mapping and local data. The real-time information, is reportedly going to be up-to-the minute on local gas prices, traffic flows, restaurant wait times, parking information and more. It is important to note that Yahoo maps have been offering real-time traffic reports since at least January 2005. I am interested to see how Microsoft will enable local gas prices, restaurant wait times and parking information into this system.

I personally rarely use Yahoo maps for local traffic data before driving anywhere. But would real-time traffic data be of use to you while you are driving? I suspect I would use it often if it were fully integrated into my GPS system. If it is not integrated into your GPS system or you do not have a GPS system, then maybe TrafficGauge makes sense for you - it is one nice review. I would suspect whatever Microsoft does with SenseWeb, they would have plans to integrate it into their GPS device.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:30 AM | Permalink

May 5, 2006

Microsoft's Windows Live Local Launches CelebFavorites.com

Microsoft announced the launch of CelebFavorites.com, a site that uses Windows Live Local maps to plot eight famous American stars. Each of the participating celebrities has listed their favorite restaurants, hotels, clubs, shops, museums or places to hang out. You can click on a celebrities name and then travel the maps to find out more information about them. The site will be live until June 30, 2006.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:01 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 30, 2006

New "Bird's Eye" Imagery for Detroit Added to MSN Live Local Database

On Friday, I posted about a new blog where users share interesting locations and things people have found while the MSN's Live Local Bird's Eye imagery. I'm still awaiting an answer from MSN about any new cities and/or regions that have been added to the service since it launched in December. However, we've learned via this MSN Virtual Earth Team Blog post that imagery is now available for the Detroit are, home of the Super Bowl this Sunday, Motown music, and the city where I earned my MLIS degree at Wayne St. University.

A list of the cities and areas where offer Bird's Eye imagery is also available can be found in our first post about Windows Live Local.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:53 PM | Permalink

January 27, 2006

Check out Cool Bird's Eye Imagery from Windows Live Local on Bird's Eye Tourist

You've likely seen sites that allow people to share cool places and things found using the satellite and aerial imagery from Google Maps/Google Local. Google Sightseeing is an example.

However, what about a site where cool "bird's eye" imagery of places and things found using Windows Live Local could be shared? The answer is yes, such a site exists. Check out the new Bird's Eye Tourist and see what others have spotted and share what you find.

Bird's Eye Tourist is searchable but you can also browse by location and categories. Now you know what I'll be doing this weekend. (-:

For example, the California collection presently offers views of surfers in Malibu, the home used in Psycho, sea lions on Pier 39, and a few celebrity homes.

I've asked Microsoft via e-mail if any new bird's eye imagery for specific cities or areas has been added to Windows Live Local since it launched a few months ago. When I here back I'll postscript this entry.

For more on Windows Live Local check out this post where we list the cities where bird's eye imagery is available. Overhead aerial and satellite imagery available for many more areas.

Postscript: What many people don't realize is that Live Local also has 15 meter satellite imagery (not Bird's Eye) for most of the world included in its database. It's discussed in this post. You can also read this press release from Harris, the providers of the content.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:28 PM | Permalink

January 17, 2006

Logos On Rooftops Probably Not Aimed At Google Maps

Boing Boing points to Advertising with Google Maps, which suggest that merchants like Target and others are tapping into satellite views on Google Maps and Windows Live Local by painting logos on the top of their buildings. Paint me a bit dubious. I suspect these logos were painted in most cases to appeal to those flying over buildings by airplane. I'd further guess you'd see most of them along known flight paths.

I make these guesses based on years of looking out of airplane windows when landing. But I also did a bit of research. RoofAds is a company that will, well, paint your logo on your rooftop. Why? The about page at RoofAds says:

Each day, millions of commuters gaze out of their airplane windows upon takeoff and landing from airports around the world. These commuters see mountains, rivers, cities, and white rooftops of large buildings.

Here's a nice gallery of their work, along with stats on how many passengers per day will see your roof ad around various airports. Notice that one of the roof ads is for Yahoo Autos!

How many mentions of Google Maps on the RoofAds site? Zilch. In other words, here's a company that specializes in selling rooftop ads. However, seeing your ad in Google Maps is not yet a selling point or it. That more than makes me think people aren't painting ads for Google Maps.

FYI, I did find some other examples of rooftop ads. Here's an Agfa one at the Google Globetrotting site. Given how faded it is, fair to say it wasn't slapped up to take advantage of Google Maps, which launched with satellite views only last April.

The Target ad is best seen at Boing Boing, link above. But it came from Google Sightseeing on this page. The site is currently down, probably because of the Boing Boing attention. You might also try searching for "roof" or "rooftop" over at the Google Earth forums.

Certainly those with rooftop logos will get some gains as satellite view mapping services continue to gain in popularity. We'll even likely see some consider painting logos on rooftops for just this reason. But the phenomenon probably shouldn't be attributed to Google Maps.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:19 AM | Permalink

January 3, 2006

New OSX Dashboard Widget for MSN Virtual Earth; Yahoo Maps Gets a Widget

It goes without saying that 2005 was the year of online maps and online aerial/satellite imagery. Here are a couple of new tools that will likely continue their popularity into 2006.

+ First, a new version of an MSN Virtual Earth widget was released over the weekend for Mac OSX Dashboard.

+ Second, Yahoo Maps now has a widget (Mac and PC) that's available here.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:36 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.

November 10, 2005

Mashups a Go-Go! New Mashups from MSN Virtual Earth and Yahoo Maps

It's good to see more map mashups coming from developers working with both MSN Virtual Earth and Yahoo Maps. Here's a look at just a couple of them. Remember, these are just released apps and bugs are bound to exist.

MSN Virtual Earth

Virtual Places Nice! All sorts of "overlays." Add in images Flickr, travel books about a specific location, weather, local blogs, and more. Coming soon will be a tagging, sharing, and publishing. Btw, Virtual Places says it works with Firefox. However, I had problems when using my Firefox browser. Might be my problem.
OSX Dashboard Widget for MSN Virtual Earth For the Mac folks out there.
Read All About It Combine MSN Virtual Earth with the Amazon.com book database. Enter a location and find books about the location or events that took place there.

Yahoo Maps

Local Events Browser This Ajax-based demo allows you to find events in and around San Francisco. Find events by date and tags. Add events directly to your Yahoo Calendar.
MashupUpcoming.org Impressive! Take Yahoo Maps and then add events from Upcoming.org's (a new Yahoo property) database. You can even add in local traffic, wi-fi hotspots, and ATM's.
Geocoding, Local Seach, Traffic API Mash-up with Yahoo Maps! Useful and easy to use. Enter an address, a local data (like a store name), and then decide to overlay traffic info. Select each button one at a time. Btw, you can use Zip Codes instead of city/town name.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:25 PM | Permalink

November 2, 2005

MapStats Wins MS Virtual Earth Contest

I was just was reading the Via Virtual Earth site and noticed that a winner has been announced in Microsoft's Virtual Earth Competition for developers to show their creativity/coding skills and win prizes including some cash.

And the winner is... MapStats What does MapStats do?

The MSN VE site describes the winner this way: MapStats is a counter which visualizes the visitors of a website. The red squares indicate where visitors came from. The less opaque they are, the less visitors came from that location.

From the MapStats site: MapStats, the first website statistics analyzer which visualizes the visitors of your website on a world map, using Microsoft VirtualEarth. With MapStats it only takes a single second to see where your visitors are coming from. For a webmaster, this is very valuable information. MapStats obviously keeps track of the location of your visitors, but there's more! We also provide statistics regarding to referrals, the browsers of your visitors, pageviews, language, and much more.

OK, so where do I get a copy of MapStats to demo? You can check out a beta/demo here. Webmasters who are interested in testing are asked to send along their name and address.

Two other Virtual Earth based mapping sites got an honorable mention on the VE site:

+ CREmaps Real Estate listings plus maps.

+ ZoomtoHotels Nice combo of VE with hotel listings. Hotel data provided by Hotels.com ZoomtoHotels did not work with Firefox when I tested.

Postscript: Nacho points out that Urchin has offered a geo tool for some time. Until we can see what MapStats offers and those of you who use this type of technology (I don't) can get in there and bang on it, we can then understand one service vs. the other. Btw, A closer read of the text on the MapStats site might indicate that this is the first service of this type to incorporate MSN Virtual Earth technology.

Want to discuss? Visit this thread in the SEW Forums and share your thoughts.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:33 AM | Permalink

October 26, 2005

Locating Haunted Houses with MSN Virtual Earth

Just in time for time for Halloween, members of the the Virtual Earth team (aka the Poly9 boys) have used a bunch of different sources and MSN Virtual Earth technology to build the "Haunted Map." It shows where haunted houses can be found all over the USA. Think of it as a geek treat for your Halloween trick-or-treat bag.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:24 PM | Permalink

October 24, 2005

Driving Directions using MSN Virtual Earth

I just noticed a new addition of a new service to the Via VirtualEarth gallery that provides access to driving directions using Virtual Earth (U.S. only, for now) The demo (using AJAX) was created by François Joffre. Try clicking on any of the numbered items for more close-up look or text info. François explains some of the tech stuff on his Map Bazaar blog. He also points out that a new release (no word as to when it's coming) of MSN Virtual Earth will "officially" include a driving directions tool.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:09 PM | Permalink

October 6, 2005

Sharing MSN Virtual Earth Maps with MSN Messenger

Here's something I'll be trying this weekend.

Yesterday, Via Virtual Earth announced a new and very cool service that allows MSN Virtual Earth users who also use MSN Messenger the option to share maps with other MSN Messenger users (individuals or groups). Very cool! This items was first posted late last week on the Virtual Earth Blog. You'll find more info and screen caps on the 25HoursaDay blog and on Chandu Thota's WebLog.

Posted by Gary Price at 7:08 PM | Permalink

October 4, 2005

Taiwan Not Happy With Being A Chinese "Province" In Google Maps

Via SEO Book, Taiwan tells Google it is not a China province from Reuters has Taiwan asking Google to stop calling it "Taiwan, Province Of China" on Google Maps, as you can see here. Out of curiosity, I went looking at a few other hot spots to see how Google was handling them.

Macedonia is labeled that way on the map but identified as "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," which I gather is the UN preferred name for the country. The country itself uses "The Republic Of Macedonia," which is recognized by several other countries, including the United States.

As for Cyprus, the Republic Of Cyprus is shown to occupy the entire island of Cyprus except for the two small UK-run Sovereign Base Areas. In reality, the Republic Of Cyprus occupies two-thirds of the southern half of the island, with the northern third occupied by the Turkish-backed Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus.

As I understand, the UN and all governments other than Turkey recognize that the Republic of Cyprus has sovereignty over the entire island, so perhaps Google might argue the label is correct. But the border between the two areas is very real, as anyone who has to cross it knows. The map simply doesn't reflect that physical reality.

How about MSN Virtual Earth? I'd say it escapes criticism in two of three cases, because it doesn't supplement the map labels with descriptions. In other words:

Taiwan is just labeled as Taiwan, with no mention of it being a province or not of China
Cyprus is just labeled as Cyprus, and while a dividing line is shown, no further labels are given to say what portion is part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Macedonia is called FYROM or FYRO Macedonia, so the choice there isn't open to interpretation. MSN is going with the UN-backed name, rather than the name the country prefers.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:01 AM | Permalink

August 19, 2005

MSN Virtual Earth: The Video

The folks at MSN Virtual Earth have publicly released this very funny video clip that has the MSN Butterfly (as portrayed by Steve Lombardi, Program Manager, of MSN VE) gathering info in and around Seattle to add to the service. The clip was originally created and shared internally to reward and praise those who worked on the project.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:26 PM | Permalink

August 3, 2005

MSN Virtual Earth Team Answers Questions and Announces New Site for Developers

A post just up on the MSN Search's WebLog shares some insights about and future plans for MSN Virtual Earth as it completes its first week. You'll read about future international coverage, newer imagery (where was the Apple HQ) and how people love the scratchpad feature. Also worthy of your attention is the new ViaVirtualEarth site that features info for MSN Virtual Earth developers as well as gallery of applications that use MSN VE services including the NASA Space Shuttle Current Location tool. For more on MSN Virtual Earth, here's a link to the SearchDay review.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:34 PM | Permalink

July 29, 2005

View Google Maps & MSN Virtual Earth Side-By-Side

Spotted via Phil Bradley, Virtual Earth and Google Maps, side-by-side lets you see the same area's satellite view in Google Maps and MSN's Virtual Earth service. Slick!

Postscript (from Gary): I've found that copying and pasting a url works best. Otherwise, you'll need to be very specific when entering an address of a location. For example, entering only a city name doesn't appear to work. Also, this tool doesn't allow you to see how far you can zoom-in to a location. Althought this varies from address to address and from service to service, I've noticed that for many of the locations I've searched for, Virtual Earth offers a "closer" look.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:21 AM | 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

May 25, 2005

More About Microsoft's Virtual Earth

A couple of days ago Danny posted about Microsoft's Virtual Earth service that is set for release sometime this summer. If you would like to learn more about what appears to be a very cool and useful service, Adena Schutzberg and Joe Francica at Directions Magazine have a fantastic overview article titled: Microsoft's MSN Virtual Earth: The Map is the Search Platform.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:30 PM | Permalink

May 23, 2005

MSN Virtual Earth To Take On Google Earth

Microsoft sends news today that founder Bill Gates has announced a MSN Virtual Earth service is to debut in the summer. The service is promised to provide:

Satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods
Satellite images with street map overlays
Ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants

The service will allow users to choose from a number of different data types plus allow people to contribute their own information. The announcement came today at the D3 conference happening this week.

Here are some screenshots from the service to come. You can click on the first to make it larger:

Last week, Google announced that its Keyhole software allowing satellite views of the Earth will be renamed Google Earth. Better images will also be available to those getting satellite views via Google Maps. In addition, Google Maps has also been getting enhanced by others adding on data from other sources. More on this in is covered in our Google Factory Tour Recap post.

So, the planned Microsoft service will help MSN compete against some Google gains in this area, not to mention moves others like Yahoo have been making with maps. Some past reading you may find interesting on these topics:

Google Maps Not In Google Search; Comparing Services & How Do They Do That?
Satellite/Aerial Images Plus Local Info
Super Cool: Interact With Satellite and Aerial Images With NASA's World Wind Program

World Wind Central (a wiki)

Just Map It!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:52 PM | Permalink

February 28, 2005

New Services from MSN Maps

News of a few new services from MSN Maps this afternoon.

+ An option to paste a formatted address from a web page, Word document, etc. into a search box. This saves you the time of having to reformat the location into the various search boxes required to do a map search. This option has been available for several weeks but was formally announced today. A nice timesaver.

+ Find businesses along a route. At the moment, you can map locations for three hotel chains and Target stores.

+ You are now able to directly link to maps.

+ Detailed street level geographic coverage has added for Australia, Belgium and Spain, and the service is now available on MSN Latino.

+ Not new but just noticed, MSN offers real-time traffic info and maps for many metropolitan areas in the U.S. You can even have traffic alerts sent to your mobile device via SMS. Yahoo launched a real-time traffic info service in December.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:01 PM | Permalink

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