Microsoft's Virtual Earth latest to connect map and search

[Class316]

To complete with google earth no doubt.

This is the year that online maps and Web search come together.

Microsoft is launching an early version of MSN Virtual Earth, a mapping service that closely ties to its Web search engine and its Web log program. The release, at 9 p.m. yesterday, is the company's answer to a mapping service from search-sector leader Google that debuted earlier this year.

Virtual Earth got the attention of Chairman Bill Gates earlier this year, and as a result was fast-tracked in development at Microsoft. The team behind it previously developed Microsoft's MapPoint technology, which helped people find locations and directions online.

Microsoft recently moved the MapPoint team to MSN's search unit from its previous home in the company's Mobile and Embedded Devices division — an acknowledgement that search and maps are becoming increasingly important to each other.

Virtual Earth, at virtualearth.msn.com, offers aerial views of cities overlaid with road networks and other information. It has new navigation tools that allow users to pan and drag maps.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... oft25.html

http://virtualearth.msn.com/

[Silverhaze]

Havent even tried the google one yet

[Class316]

Ha! This is interesting!

Not one but two Register readers emailed us to tell us that MSN's Virtual Earth is promoting a world free of the menace of Apple Computers.

If you've got time on your hands - stand up Jens and Stefan - have a look at Apple's Cupertino headquarters from Google and MSN's rival map sites. Both sites offer aerial photos alongside maps. MSN's version is here and Google's is here.

See the difference? Google shows the Apple Cupertino HQ - a lovely, shiny building probably full of iPods. MSN on the other hand shows an apparently empty field. Not as much as a black turtle-necked jumper remains of Apple's headquarters. This could be no more than an old picture taken before Cupertino was built or a glimpse of an imagined future.

How this terrible error came about is not yet clear. Nor can we be certain who else has been removed from Bill's upgraded planet.

Reg reader Michael Sage pointed out that zooming in on the UK will reveal towns like Norwich and Lowestoft long before little old London appears. Is London next to be removed? We need to know.

Even more disturbing MSN's Virtual Earth still shows the twin towers of the World Trade Center in all their pre-9/11 glory.

No comment from Microsoft HQ as yet but we'll keep you posted. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25 ... etes_aple/

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.asp ... lvl=17&v=1

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.33230 ... &t=k&hl=en

[Silverhaze]

Typical Gates. lol