It seems you can't go anywhere these days without tripping over a new mash-up involving Google Maps and some other type of useful info, like apartment listings or traffic conditions. Tonight, Microsoft comes along to remind people that there's another player in the maps realm. The product is Microsoft Virtual Earth, and it combines local searching with maps and satellite photography.
"We think of this as a new part of our broader MSN search strategy, which is focused on local search,'' Tom Bailey, a marketing director for Microsoft, told us last week.
The users interface of VE will feel familiar to Google Maps users, with easy back-and-forth panning and zooming on both the graphical and satellite maps. But Microsoft has added some features that differentiate it.
- Multiple searches: Users can keep multiple searches on the page at the same time, helping plan multiple activities. "In future releases, we hope to have more features that treat this like an itinerary,'' Bailey said.
- Scratch pad: Any location can be added to a little scratchpad box for saving. Then, you can email your scratchpad contents to someone or blog them to an MSN Spaces blog.
- Permalinks: A way to save a search and location.
An intriguing feature is called "Locate Me." Its intent is to help people locate themselves and nearby services on a map when they've rolled into a new town or area, such as on a business trip. "You show up in Atlanta and you want to know what's going on and where things are,'' Bailey said. It requires free downloadable software that hunts for wifi signals and tries to triangulate your position. Microsoft does this by tapping into a database of wifi hotspots with addresses.
As both Yahoo and Google have done, Microsoft is opening its maps platform to third-party developers. "They'll be able to do many of the things you've seen done with other maps providers,'' Bailey said.
This is a beta release, and Bailey said other features are coming. One that may excite people is the ability to show cities and landmarks from a 45-degree angle view, suing technology from Pictometry International. Microsoft will also be extending its coverage to other parts of the world. This first release is U.S. only.
One very minor nitpick... :) Google Maps introduced that hybrid view just last week, allowing people to see combined satellite and street names and such.
As a developer of a very big Google Maps mashup (http://www.ApartmentRatings.com) launched a few days ago, this has the unsettling feel of a standards war.
Has there been any talk of creating a standard API to which Google, Yahoo, and MSN will allow 3rd party developers to make their sites conform? I checked the Where 2.0 schedule but didn't see anything about standardizing API's.
Another small nitpick, Google Maps has had Permalinks from the beginning. The "Link to this page" link in the top right does the trick.