Microsoft Live Maps gets close up

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Microsoft

Microsoft Live Maps gets close up

by Brad Linder Mar 30th 2007

It looks like Microsoft has gone and added 3.8 terabytes worth of image data to its Google Maps-like Live Maps system. It's a bit creepy exactly how close up you can get with some locations.

Above are screenshots of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. In both cases, we zoomed in as far as we could using Microsoft Live Maps or Google Maps. Not only is the aerial imagery zoomed in a bit tighter with Microsoft Live Maps, but the picture is a lot sharper. And of course, since the picture is at an angle, it's much easier to identify landmarks, which is one of the only real practical uses of an aerial view when you're looking for directions.

Google Maps still seems to load a bit smoother as you scroll throughout the map. But the upgrade makes Live Maps a bit more fun to play around with.

Tags: google maps, GoogleMaps, independence hall, IndependenceHall, maps, microsoft live maps, MicrosoftLiveMaps

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Doug S. said 4:34PM on 3-30-2007

Way cool! Like it says above...doesn't work everywhere, but where it does, it's lots of fun!

Andrew Fong said 5:01PM on 3-30-2007

The angled view is definitely a huge plus. The street addresses are almost always off a little on both Live and Google, so the angled view is great for identifying particular buildings.

mikel said 9:57PM on 3-30-2007

yeah, with Google maps I still haven't found an address that hasn't had an aerial photo. the second one I tried on live had no aerial photo. way to stay behind the curve M$!!

RP said 7:15AM on 3-31-2007

I thought I saw a Microsoft airplane flying over my city last month. :-)

The Live stuff looks cool, but the last time I installed it, the install process was brutally painful. Did they improve it yet? A techie may suffer thru it, but definitely not your average user.

Jack said 7:46AM on 4-01-2007

3.8 terabytes and my town's still in black and white.

No thanks, I'll stick with Google.

tevetorbes said 6:57PM on 4-01-2007

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain (from past articles re: 21+ zoom on Google Maps) that the most extreme close-ups are from airplane flyovers. The one that comes to mind is of the guy looking up somewhere in the African desert: that one was for a National Geographic something-or-other.

So no, we don't need our tinfoil hats because Google and MSN are not using some supersecret ultra-precise spy satellite.

Yet...

mrbs landscape said 9:32PM on 4-05-2007

cool

V said 9:46AM on 4-13-2007

The Images are from Satellites. If you didn't know we have hundreds of satellites in our space area reading information from Planet Temperature to Planet activity!

Joey said 4:00PM on 4-19-2007

If the aerial view is detailed enough to show boobs of naked women on a beach then that determines the winner for me.

LWill said 9:59AM on 4-24-2007

Wow..I was left speechless for a moment when I saw how sharp the image was on the screenshot for Live Maps. It's true that the clarity of one the pictures spoke a thousand words to me that I found it unnecessary to read further to determine which was the better one. I did, subsequently, read on. However, I think it's still worth to try or stick on with Microsoft Live Maps for a little longer to see what other improvements they will bring on in the future.

Brett Cook said 2:24PM on 5-31-2007

Which is better is now a moot point, since the Live Maps system now shows the same images as Google Earth.
Two days ago, I was able to see close-up views of my house that were fairly recent. Today, I see the same view as I get with Google Earth, which is about 5yrs old. I can tell because of the presence of a van which we sold back then, and the absense of a garage, which we built since then.

john mcgiffen said 9:00AM on 6-24-2007

very good

Hieu said 8:10AM on 6-25-2007

Cool

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