Filed under: Internet, News, Web services, Microsoft
Microsoft unveils Virtual Earth (beta... of course.)
Well, it's happened -- Microsoft has thrown down their counterpoint to Google maps and Yahoo maps. I just checked out Virtual Earth and it's got some pretty nice bells and whistles:
- Continuous local search: Do a search by type ("coffee," e.g.) and you'll see waypoints of local coffee places. As you pan around the map, the search will update continuously based on your new location.
- Layered search: You can see the results of multiple searches -- both "restaurant" and "hotel," e.g. -- simultaneously via the use of different colored markers, which comes in handy for travel planning.
- Scratch pad: This is a temporary bin to hold items of interest as you go -- when you've collected your points of interest, you can email them or blog them all at once (although the blog feature apparently only works in IE6/Win, hmmph).
- Locate Me: Finds your location by triangulating via the nearest WiFi spot (requires a small client-side application), or by taking an educated guess based on your IP address. The latter is a bit rough -- it thinks I'm in Syracuse, NY because my ISP is there (I'm not!). Regarding the former -- if you're using Firefox, you'll have to download an ActiveX plug-in.