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Did you even look before making this comment?
Whaddayaknow? Look! It's Iraq!

If i'm looking at these maps right, google is showing pictures of the base at Area 51, while Microsoft isn't. I wonder if they're allowed to show it?
Google
Microsoft

I believe I've figured out why the M$ map is so old.

On the msn map, just southwest of Apple's HQ you'll see a large fun mural of a spider. The surrounding buildings are obviously part of a children's school. That's nice and sweet.
http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?ss=apple& cp=37.331011%7C-122.029705&style=h&lvl=17&v=1

NOW, look at the more up to date photo from Google M$ DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE THIS!!
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.331078,-122.0287 73&spn=0.004620,0.007532&t=h&hl=en

Try to find the same mural..look at it REALLY WELL...I almost choked! Yes it is evil and YES it IS HIM!!
http://www.cnn.com/video/health/2002/05/09/sg.bill .gates.vs.cnn.jpg

The school is no longer the fun school we knew with the sweet spider mural but has been turned into some kind of sicko spy factory for mr dementio himself!

Here is the map on MSN, still with the WTC:

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=40.712 432%7C-74.012331&style=a&lvl=17&v=1

and here is the corresponding map on Google without the WTC:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=new+york&ll=40.71176 0,-74.012854&spn=0.005949,0.010131&t=k&hl=en

The reg also mentions the Twin Towers are still there:

Microsoft
Google

When I map Baptist Road near Monument, CO with MSN Virtual Earth the road names and highlights are way off. I'm wondering if there is some mis-matching of coordinates with images because of the altitude (>6000ft) and angle the pictures were taken.

Regardless of the cause/excuse...this is pretty poor.

I've also read in the Register that the Twin Towers from WTC are still there.

Yup, still visible in the picture

Makes me want to start searching for the seam between modern and 10 years old just to see if they try to blend them or just have a gross cut between them

Well, I'm not sure on the dates of these, but here's a very obvious seam between black & white and color data (just a few miles from the Apple campus)

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=37.328 429|-122.005218&style=a&lvl=17&v=1

Yes, but if you go North, up Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road a couple of miles to the intersection of Matilda and El Camino Real, you see the apartment complex they built in Olson's cherry orchard. So that part of the image is less than 5 years old.

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?ss=apple& cp=37.367465%7C-122.034733&style=h&lvl=17&v=1

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?ss=World% 20Trade%20Center&cp=40.7125|-74.011994&style=h&lvl =17&sp=adr.7609%2010th%20Ave%2C%20Brooklyn%2C%20NY %2011228&v=1

I still like google's interface better, seems a little cleaner.

I look around and see that everything just north of El Camino Real is in full color and far more recent.

A smidge west of and everything east of Lawrence Expressway and you see the same thing, far newer coverage...

Everything south and west of and including Cupertino appears to be from at least 1989... with Los Gatos and south of Los Gatos appears to be even older than the 1989'ish maps of Cupertino.

It could be that Cupertino and Los Gatos got lumped in with the little changing mountainous areas south and south-west of the Valley in general, but that's really queer (as in, the original meaning of queer).

The newer things appear to be in the whole Mountain View area and up near Moffett Field. That would make sense because there were probably some cash outlays to get the most recent data for that area - what with everything up there changing so much near (former) Onizuka Air Force Base and it being pretty much all given over to Lockheed Martin (blech).

You can even see the infamous "blue cube" building, who's contents will not be spoken of here.http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=3 7.404606%7C-122.027749&style=h&lvl=18&v=1

Geesh - even the SJ Airport is not anywhere near what it is today.

While one could argue for "selective" oudatenedness, it appears as though its just a random hodgepodge of outdatedness, looking at the whole area.

Compare MS image of Campbell Middle School with that of GoogleMaps
Exact same image - cars parked in the same place (had to zoom in pretty close with Google Earth to confirm this) except MS's version is a little clearer.

Here's MSN's real map of the Google campus... though you'll have to scroll right about 2 blocks. It's the complex with the little colored shapes in the courtyard... as seen when it was occupied by SGI (which now sublets the space to Google).

Interestingly enough, the construction at I-95, I-495, and I-395 in Springfield Virginia seems to be nearly identical between the two.

Google
MSN

The bridge you see with the nifty shadows has been complete for about a year now. See http://www.springfieldinterchange.com/ for pictures and details on what's going on.

And don't miss the new Woodrow Wilson bridge they're building just to the east of this mess.

IMarv

And it is a great empty box on MSN. But you can find it on MSN Virtual Earth at Groom, NV which isn't available from Google. But Google has a much better sat photo here, easily found just west of Alamo, NV. Oh, wait, that isn't there.

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=37.355 961|-115.752596&style=h&lvl=11&v=1

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.256293,-115.8106 61&spn=0.124348,0.240704&t=h&hl=en

Actually, yes!

The MSN link is still the Apple site. Apparently you have to click Permalink and bring up an annoying window to get the link to what you want.
MSN's map

have a look for yourself. Somewhere, Osama Bin Laden is looking at this map being very confused. "Wait a minute, is that...? Achmed, what the #%^@% are we doing in this cave?"

Also, for the lazy, the answer to:
I wonder if the Google campus is missing too?

Google
MSN

OMG, It appears to be a dirt field on Both! Shock! Awe! Conspiracy!

MSN's map
Google's Map

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.332025,-122.0301 89&spn=0.005778,0.005759&t=h&hl=en

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=37.332 362|-122.031224&style=h&lvl=17&v=1

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=37.820 93%7C-122.33545&style=h&lvl=16&v=1 http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.821260,-122.3350 60&spn=0.007375,0.013026&t=h&hl=en

For some places (e.g., Seattle) the images are exactly the same, but MSVE just gives higher res pics. Check out Husky Stadium here and here. The arrangment of the seats on the field for graduation, among others things, suggests that this is the same picture.

I suggest you look up "Apollo 1" as to why that is.

As I understand it, the big problem with Apollo 1 was that it had 100% oxygen ... at over one atmosphere. Had they used 100% oxygen and 1/4 or so atmosphere, like used in space, the fire would not have burned out of control like that.

Space Shuttle, as an example, is 20% oxygen, 80% nitrogen, much like earth.

Great, that's one state down (assuming the state-wide median home price in California is $500K, which I doubt, San Francisco maybe, California, no way). There are 49 left.

Don't keep up much with the news? Last month the median price for a home sold in the entire state of Cali was $445k. Still think there isn't a bubble? There are similar stories in LV and all over the east coast.

From this article. Ten states and the District of Columbia have seen prices rise more than 70 percent over the past five years, and prices have more than doubled in 23 markets in California, Florida and Massachusetts, according to federal figures. In the same time frame, ordinary consumer prices have risen just 13 percent, and personal income has risen 23 percent. Guess it's still just in Cali...

From the rich people who invest in them.

Exactly. When people start defaulting other people lose their money and a chain of events occurs that can lead to a recession.

So credit cards should be illegal?

No, but I do think there should be and probably will be some regulations in place about how people can get cards. There was a report the other day about how a ~%30 of credit card companies revenues come from late fees and other random fees they charge. They are basically targeting people now who they expect to default and hope they will default. Ever heard of universal default? It's a new thing the credit card companies are doing since everything is now computerized. If you are late on any bill, not just a bill to the CC company, they will pick it up and then raise your CC rates. Basically taking someone who is in a tight spot and hammering them a bit more, but I digress.

Some people are in special situations where such a mortgage might make sense. Most people aren't, but I don't see the harm in offering people more choices.....That's certainly the risk, and someone who isn't going to have $2000/month to spare in 3 years shouldn't be taking it. Doesn't mean there aren't people who might benefit from such a deal.

You are correct, there are certain people who can benefit and use these types of debt instruments. The problem now is that they are being used by people who have no business using them. Loan places are selling them like houses will never stop going up and in 3 years you'll be $$$ richer. To think that there is no bubble and that there won't be some sort of pop is ignoring all of the information available. Similar to the "it's a new type of economy" people during the internets irrational exuberance.

Here we go again... Science has to be run by "The Bible" before it can be judged correct or not. Ridiculous. A quote from a recent article On msnbc.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7013405/ summed it up exceptionally well.

"When scientists talk about a theory, they mean something far different from the everyday understanding of a guess or a supposition. "'Theory' means a logical, tested, well-supported explanation for a great variety of facts," the National Center for Science Education says. The "theory" of evolution is like the "theory" of gravity -- it is as close to a fundamental truth as anything can be."

I was trying to think up a parallel for the Bible vs Science for my kid. I came up with: Take a rock, a scientist can look at it with his eye and a microscope, dissect it and tell us it's chemical make up. With out a question he has a rock. But wait, check with the Bible first! No.. sorry.. The Bible says you have a chicken! Doesn't matter what it looks like the Bible says its a chicken, end of discussion!

This kind of "Logic" drives me nuts and for the life of me I'll never understand how people can believe it without question. How do you think they got Polar bears and Koala's onto the Ark??? (just to name a couple)

If you want everything to work, out of the box.

AFAIK Ubuntu now ships on HP machines if asked also.

Windows runs this. Nuff said

weve just slashdotted http://virtualearth.msn.com/ and msn.com is performing poorly.

Wow... you figure they'd at least make this up to date.

The World Trade Center is still in the aerial photos for Lower Manhattan.

Now that's just pathetic.

"We're sorry, but we don't have imagery at this zoom for this region."

From playing with MSN Virtual Earth I've noticed that their satellite imagery is at a much higher resolution, and there appear to be no image breaks in the satellite data where there are in Google Maps.

I think Google Earth has them booth beat right now though.

BTW, there is a ~30 minute informal video interview w/some of the MSN Virtual Earth team on Channel 9.

Click on "See your location on the map." A window appears over the map with choices on how to locate yourself (why would I not know where I am?) Click on the upper right X to close the window ... nothing.

The scroll wheel zoom is a little disconcerting. It zooms the current zoom level's map, and then redraws the map at the ending zoom level.

Pretty fast but some of the images don't load consistently.

The white text outlines in Google are easier to read. And Microsoft seems to over-label things.
Google
MS

Not where I live (San Jose, CA). Microsoft is using a satalite image that is roughly 9x sharper and more recent. Microsof t map VS Google map.
There is a playground in front of my house with yellow umbrella's clearly visible on the MS map and not there on google maps. This playground was finished in 2001. So if I want to impress people showing them an satalite image of where I live I will be sending the MS map. If on the other hand I need to find some location, I'm sticking with Google for now.

I hope Google isn't to shy about stealing features themselves, the zoom with mouse scroll wheel is neat.

It's easy to date photos if you have some frame of reference. In Minnesota we have the Severs Corn Maze (get it, maize maze haha, boy can us Minnesotans whoop it up!) They normally do a different maze each year. I looked it up for fun and it dates it as either 2002 or 2003 (they just had to have the same map those years.) You can see the past mazes on their web site through the path "Our Story" > "Past Mazes" > "More" x 5. (Warning, total Flash site ahead) Looks like they dug out the "Corn Maze" letters for the parking lot by the time the Google photo was taken. (Both 2000 and 2004 they had the year in the maze itself, would have helped here) MSN has a lovely black and white photo of dirt in the same place for the curious. No help there.... My guess is that we're getting recycled Terra Server photos Not a shocker, but with the change M$ throws around, you'd think that they could get some fresher (post 09/11/2001 at least) photos.

Not to start another My Favorite Google Map thread... This was on topic.... really.

Better aerial resolution for some locations. For example, try Marinal Del Rey, CA
MSN Google

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?ss=woodla nd%20park%20co&cp=38.992868%7C-105.137923&style=h& lvl=13&v=1

Note that all the businesses in Woodland Park are off in the mountains, while Woodland Park is off on the right :).

Here's hoping that it improves. Competition, even if it's from Microsoft, will benefit the consumer. Even if Microsoft's got the town separated from its businesses, the image resolution in Woodland Park is much much better than Google's.

Whilst a big fan of Google Earth ( wasted hours and hours looking round at places ), for the very first place I tried to compare the MS and Google products, the MS product was *way* better. See:

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=37.724 92%7C-121.920142&style=h&lvl=19&v=1

vs the same place in Google Earth

MS has far more detailed imagery for this area.

sorta looks like MS got a team of kids together and made a superduper "map!"

The grandparent was talking about MSN's map data, which for Virginia Tech seems to be good(MSN map, Google map). For my campus MSN's maps are worthless

MSN does seem to have a LOT more aerial photos; however supplimenting bad map data with old aerial photos just doesn't cut it.

They both get their data from NAVTEQ. If you look in the lower right corner of MS Earth, you'll see "© 2004 NAVTEQ." In Google maps you'll see "© 2005 NAVTEQ."

So, they're using older vector data. They're using older imagery, too. For most places MS uses USGS DOQQs, probably from 1999. Google, for urban areas at least, uses more recent satellite imagery. But outside of urban areas, Google uses low-res Landsat imagery which is fairly useless for this application.

Microsoft's maps of around ETSU are nearly worthless. It's sorta fun to see what things may have looked like a decade ago, but I like my maps to be updated. MSN has roads going through buildings that are 30 years old and a lot of missing roads, the few on-campus roads that are named on the map are wrong. I know for a fact that their aerial photos are at least 3 years old for ETSU.

Microsoft's map of ETSU
Google's map of ETSU(very accurate)

And what's with MS's maps inability to render curved roads?

Now I might forgive them for messing up my campus, but the WHOLE the map for Johnson City, TN at MSN has SERIOUS problems. (try comparing the area surrounding ETSU(Google's is correct).

Microsoft's maps of around ETSU are nearly worthless. It's sorta fun to see what things may have looked like a decade ago, but I like my maps to be updated. MSN has roads going through buildings that are 30 years old and a lot of missing roads, the few on-campus roads that are named on the map are wrong. I know for a fact that their aerial photos are at least 3 years old for ETSU.

Microsoft's map of ETSU
Google's map of ETSU(very accurate)

And what's with MS's maps inability to render curved roads?

Now I might forgive them for messing up my campus, but the WHOLE the map for Johnson City, TN at MSN has SERIOUS problems. (try comparing the area surrounding ETSU(Google's is correct).

Er, Encarta is an encyclopedia.

In general, I like Google map but Virtual Earth's map does look better in some cases.

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=38.896 552%7C-77.070432&style=r&lvl=17&v=1Virtual Earth
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Arlington,+VA&ll=38. 895976,-77.071688&spn=0.005545,0.010131&hl=enGoogl e map

Google map doesn't display the name of the road (Fort Myer Dr.) that goes down from Lee Hwy (29). Also Virtual Earth represents the road as being separated into three streets with all going the same direction in a bit clearer way.

In some areas the aerial photographs seem to be black and white, with park areas tinted green.

See this example (of the same area mentioned above with fucked up building layouts).

I'm not sure, but I think Microsoft may be living in a bit of denial...

On the other hand, it took only a week or two for them to update Flight Simulator!

Quite the opposite MSN Virtual Earth nails Virginia Tech ( http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=40.808 516%7C-73.96152&style=r&lvl=17&v=1 ) while Google Maps is left with no zoom levels ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=blacksburg,+va&ll=37 .224280,-80.422282&spn=0.023634,0.040525&t=h&hl=en )

http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=32.676 439%7C-117.158347&style=h&lvl=17&v=1

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.676147,-117.1575 27&spn=0.005491,0.006289&t=k&hl=en

Roberto

Comparing Virtual Earth with Google Maps, it seems that Virtual Earth has far "noisier" data. An example should help.

Look at this cloverleaf. The curves are all jaggedy.

Now let's see what it's like with google. Much better.

I know it's probably just different input datasets, but it still is an important thing to have roads look relatively smooth, instead of jaggedy.