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.
Related Reading:
Microsoft Partners with Zvents for MSN City Guides
MSN Virtual Earth vs Google Earth APIs
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