Audio & Video
Business Center
Cameras
Cell Phones & PDAs
Desktop PCs
Gadgets
Gaming
HDTV
Laptops
Macs & iPods
Monitors
Printers
Software
Spyware & Security
Storage
Upgrading
Windows Vista & XP
Resource Centers
Asus Notebook Center
Intel Technology Center
CDW Solution Center
Lenovo Laptop Showcase
Try It Free
White Paper Library
Webcast Library
Most Popular Products
Most Popular Downloads
Monday, July 25, 2005 10:18 PM PT Posted by Harry McCracken
MSN Virtual Earth: Microsoft Takes on Google
A month ago, while writing about Google Earth, I mentioned MSN Virtual Earth, Microsoft's new foray into aerial mapping and local information. The service went live last night (in a Google-style public beta), and is available at virtualearth.msn.com. And I've just spent some time playing with it.You don't need to delve very deeply into MSN Virtual Earth to realize that, similar name aside, it's not really a Google Earth rival, yet alone a Google Earth killer. Google Earth is a hefty Windows download; Virtual Earth is browser-based (mostly--more on that in a moment). Google Earth does amazing, earth-spanning animations; Virtual Earth doesn't.
Microsoft's Earth is really a competitor to Google Maps, Google's browser-based local information service. In fact, they feel sort of separated at birth. Witness these comparative screen shots (Google on top, MSN below):
Virtual Earth does have some features that Google Maps doesn't, such as its "Scratchpad"--a place to store addresses that also lets you quickly e-mail them, or insert them into a blog on MSN's Spaces service. It also has Permalinks--the ability to create a URL that links to a local map with whatever businesses or other addresses you've added to it.
But Virtual Earth's standout feature is Locate Me, which figures out where you are so you can start to look for local information without bothering to type in your address. Locate Me is really for laptop-lugging mobile types who may not know their current address, and it does its magic by sniffing out nearby Wi-Fi networks whose location it can identify. (Microsoft has built a nationwide network of them.) It's a sort of poor man's GPS, and it's a very clever idea.
Locate Me also departs from Virtual Earth's purely browserly ways. It's a little Windows app that sits in your system tray, whether or not you're using Virtual Earth at the moment. It also requires ActiveX, so it's essentially an Internet Explorer-only feature--the rest of Virtual Earth seems to be Firefox-friendly.)
To really tell how well Locate Me works, you'd need to tote a notebook and try it from an array of locations. I plan to try just that over time. For now, I used it at our offices in a commercial district, and it did, indeed, locate me--down to the correct streetcorner. Extremely neat. But when I tried at my home (in an urban, but less businessy, neighborhood) it wasn't able to identify my position via Wi-Fi.
In instances such as this--or if you don't have Microsoft's software installed--Virtual Earth can make a stab at tracking you down using your IP address. When I tried, this method wasn't worth much: It only figured out that I was in Northern California (I knew that already), and recommended pizza places in Sunnyvale, around an hour south of PC World's San Francisco HQ.
How good is Virtual Earth for finding out about local businesses of interest? I've mostly been poking around my own San Francisco neighborhood, and so far, it's an awful lot like Google Maps. Both seem to do the job pretty well.
Still, Virtual Earth seems more like it should be called Virtual USA--when I tried to venture outside the US, I only found high-up aerial renderings of other regions, not local info or street maps. (Google Earth and Google Maps are spotty from an international standpoint, too, but not this skimpy.)
In other ways, Virtual Earth feels a tad unfinished (which, given that it's prominently labeled as a beta, is entirely permissable). Ask for driving directions in Google Maps, and it gives you them right there, plotting them on the map you're already looking at. Virtual Earth, however, spawns another browser window and hands you off to MSN Maps & Directions. That gets the job done, but it's a lot less elegant--and it begs the question, why are Virtual Earth and Maps & Directions two separate sites, anyhow? They're two pieces of the same puzzle. (You could say the same thing about Google Earth and Google Maps, but at least one's a heavy-duty Windows app and the other a sleek browser service.)
Oh, and the feature I found most interesting when I mentioned Virtual Earth a month ago--45-degree animated, aerial images of the world that show you what buildings really look like, rather than what the tops of their roofs look like? Microsoft's still working on that--it says it should go live sometime this Fall. Here's the same image of the 45-degree view that I ran before:
When this feature hits, the war of the worlds--Google's and Microsoft's, that is--will heat up again. For now, Virtual Earth is worth checking out for Locate Me. But Google Earth and Google Maps offer a more fully-baked look at the future of mapping.
Archives
View posts from:
PC World's Marketplace
PC World's Free Whitepapers
QUICK LINKS:
cheap laptops
cell phones
laser printers
HDTV reviews
LCD TV Plasmas
digital cameras
laptop reviews
security antivirus
windows vista reviews
digital camera reviews
inexpensive desktop
LCD wide screen monitors
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
I am old enough to recall the microsoft versus apple operating system battles, microsoft versus wordperfect word processor battles, ...n, and Microsoft is a very able competitor with deep pockets. Their first iteration is usually underwhelming, but they get better very quickly. Google needs to check their rearview mirror, regularly!
It also has Permalinks--the ability to create a URL that links to a local map with whatever businesses or other addresses you've added to it.
So does google maps. Is this supposed to me Microsoft's advantage?
It also has Permalinks--the ability to create a URL that links to a local map with whatever businesses or other addresses you've added to it.
So does google maps. Is this supposed to be Microsoft's advantage?
Don't forget about ESRI's new ArcExplorer that will enable free browsing of their virtual globe datasets
I am old enough to remember Microsoft v. Netscape; Microsoft annihilated Netscape, and then napped. Their first iteration is usually underwhelming and so is there last.
As expected, doesn't work on OSX Safari
Test. Should've not put my email in.
It does not work for firefox too.
Google's "Permalinks" don't always point to the exact same map. Strange I know, but true. I've gotten in trouble for that. One thing that makes the VE services a notch up, is that the Permalink also carries with it info about your Scratch Pad.
With Google Maps, trying to get a result paired down to a specific business is a chore. A Local Search for the "Space Needle" in Seattle, WA returns this page "http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Space+Needle&ll=47.617721,-122.347462&spn=0.011254,0.026256&near=Seattle,+WA&num=10&start=0&hl=en". The relavent item I'm looking for is "E". Now, how do you share for someone a map where that is the only item?
The "Link to the Page" link has "http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Space+Needle%3A+Skycity+at+the+Needle&ll=47.620856,-122.349094&spn=0.045018,0.105022&near=Seattle,+WA&cid=47606389,-122330833,12510180671557557296&num=10&start=0&hl=en" which doesn't actually give you the same view... oops.
This is where the "Virtual Earh...:D" comment is supposed to fit.
In that same map view, do a search for coffee. I get the results on the left. Clicking on Tully's I then add it to the scratch pad. I then clear the search results, leaving the scratch pad up, and now the perma link "http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=47.61883|-122.351266&style=h&lvl=17&sp=yp.15440790|yp.13960778&v=1" allows me to share those two locations.
Let's see someone do that in Google Maps as easily.
Oh, and it works just fine in Firefox. I used FF in the posting of this "Extended Comment" to verify that it was the link itself and not some cookie caching that was showing me items on my scratch pad from the permalink.
Honestly, I tried my neighborhood for Supermarkets, Grocery Stores, and Pizza, there's plenty around, but Virtual Earth was the winner, where Google missed 3 entries right next door to my building, one for each of the search entries. Sorry Google, you are still my preference but here, Microsoft won the battle.
I'm all about some good competition it helps the development of these great online applications. I just hope that Microsoft doesn't pull their usual b/s and try to buy out Google.
------------------------------------------------
Windows is a 32-bit extension to a 16-bit graphical shell for an 8-bit operating system originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor by a 2-bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition!
I really like how much further in Virtual Earth goes in than Google Maps. Previously for that high of detail images I had to use MS Terraserver, terraserver.microsoft.com, but now Virtual Earth is much more helpful.
aa
I have been using Google Earth for a few weeks and love it. You install the program onto your computer and interface with the Internet to render images. I like the idea of seeing the Earth as a spinning globe rather than a flat map. Terrain rendering is also cool. Fly through the Grand Canyon . . . . Woo Hoo! I would recommend Google Maps or MSN Virtual Earth to those that have dial-up connections or weak graphics cards as Google Earth probably wouldn't work in those applications. I will still use MSN Virtual Earth because many of their rural aerial photos supplied by the USGS are higher resolution. But, where Google Earth has Hi-Res photos, they are in color as is all the rest of the Earth. Emailing data points to someone is simple. Update to their $20 program and you can upload GPS points from Garmin and Magellan devices. You can also overlay your own images (.JPG, etc.) on the aerial views. This is my choice.
You think it's bad that they lost apple, check out what they did to their home states capital. They sunk it under water. Lot's of streets right in the drink....
See the link:
http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=47.044037|-122.898694&style=h&lvl=14&v=1
Virtual Earth is ridiculous.. there is almost nothing about Europe. This is soooo lame, and Google already won once against Microsoft. Microsoft's own people use google as search engine instead of MSN.
just wrote a comprehensive review of Virtual Earth and Google Maps.
http://myschizobuddy.com/index.php?/archives/7-Virtual-Earth-and-Google-Maps-Comparison.html
Dear Sirs
Thanks for google earh technology.
Will you please advise if there is any way to watch the earth as live satelite shows actually how can I get the view live?
Your kind attention in answering my demand are highly appreciated.
Best regards
Hajbashi