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MSN Virtual Earth to Take on Google
Jim Bruer writes "Microsoft sends news today that founder Bill Gates has announced a MSN Virtual Earth service is to debut in the summer. The service is promised to provide:
*Satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods
*Satellite images with street map overlays
* Ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants
The service will allow users to choose from a number of different data types plus allow people to contribute their own information."
Score another for Stephenson... His powers of seeing into the future back in the late '80s, early '90s was pretty amazing... I mean this is just another example. How long before we have drive-through places of worship tucked deep in the franchise ghettos?
For the uninitiated, Stephenson wrote about a program called Earth (iirc) in Snow Crash that this is pretty similar to in concept.
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
Here are some links to get you started:
- Mapping Google
- Google Suggest Dissected
- Gmail Agent API
I'll assume you know how to find each of the actual google services.I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Actually Microsoft had Terraserver before Google even existed...
My Journal
Microsoft isn't the only copycat company. Google has come up with what ideas of their own? Did they invent the search engine? No, they just made a better one. Did they create the first News aggerator? No, they just automated it. Is maps.google.com the first mapping service? No, and it's isn't nearly best out there (at least not yet). Free toolbar that blocks popup adds? Not the first. Software to archive photos? Already been done.
Google does the same thing Microsoft does. They take other people ideas and try to make them profitable for themselves. They are both highly successful at this, Google just tends to make a better product while they are at it.
Google sucks because it's US-centric in all it does.
... (not to mention Canada and Greenland ...)
5 6&spn=5.119629,7.910156&t=k&hl=en
Actually, there's some quite nice satellite imagery of Iceland, if that floats your boat
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=64.775391,-19.1601
Terra server doesn't allow "overlays" of roads and routes and doesn't allow you to look at buisnesses in the area. Terraserver is in Black and white and includes topos, and doesn't include scroll and other javascript goodness.
Terraserver was just a way for MS to demonstrate its server/database software. Thats it.
I guess this is just typical Slashdot pro-Google cheerleading.
Disclaimer: I work at MSN.
Last spring there was a demo for Longhorn published to the web. The primary focus was around finding information regarding a real estate property. In the demo the user was able to select the street address of the property and retrieve, photos (air and sat.), demographic information and traffic pattern data and overlay it on a map. In hindsight, this sounds a lot like what Bill is talking about. All of this data was accessible via a web service as well.
I'm thinking that this isn't something that MS just invented "out of the blue" to compete with Google maps, it has likely been under development for a while.
I dunno, I've been pretty unimpressed with the google map images (beyond such obvious problems as U.S. only coverage) -- the quality is so variable it gets annoying, even for a casual use.
That's what you get with satellite imagery when you order humungous off the shelf data sets.
This problem doesn't take any creativity to fix, just cash. With an outlay of cash you can order up custom imagery that meets your technical specifications with a specified level of consistency. Then you need a staff to check it, and then prepare it for use by rubber sheeting it and registering it, or in this case cutting it up into little tiles. This process requires considerable investment in staff, software, equipment and procedures, but it's efficient once it gets into gear.
Last time I looked into this for a client, I figured he could get really good custom sat imagery for his entire county for something like $10,000. There are 3140 counties in the US, of various sizes (this was a large one); what is more if you're ordering data on this scale, you probably can get a pretty good deal on a per image basis. But we can safely say that if you want really excellent data which fits your purpose precisely and covers the entire US in high resolution, you're talking millions by the time you're done.
Using off the shelf data, you have good enough imagery for a lot less money, which makes sense for the speculative launch of a free service. Now that Google has shown how to use AJAX to make the data more interactive, it's only a matter of time before somebody decides to copy them, but one up them on the data quality. Money seeks obvious problems. Fortunately for Google, they have money too now; maybe they're not fated to being the R&D lab for the industry.
Finally I'd have to say the idea of using images shot from a low angle like 45 degrees instead of overhead is good and bad.
Reasons its bad:
* You can't rectify the image and use it for anything that requires geographic precision.
For example, look at the image in the article, particularly the tower in the upper right hand corner. Consider the column of about 30 windows on the left edge of the tower. The geographic positions of all of these windows are exactly the same, but they show up in different positions in the photograph. The same thing happens when one road crosses another on an overpass. If the angle is such that you can see underneath the overpass, then a geographic position on the bridge deck will have a second representation on the photograph: the point on the roadway directly beneath it. The software which plots the vector representation of the roads is not going to know this, unless the data is tweaked for every overpass in the country. Maybe if you had high res elevation data like a LIDAR survey you could mathematically tweak the entire data set.
People tend to believe a photo more than anything else, but the fact is the precision of photos from a geographic standpoint is highly limited. When using imagery with data from other sources such as GPS and surveying, you can't expect it to line up very well. Things are better if you have in image shot from above with a narrow field of view, and if your target area doesn't have much topography.
* You can't see details that are behind hills or structures.
Obviously. If you are interested in an alleyway that's behind a building, or a lot that is obscured by an elevated highway, then tough.
What is good about the 45 degree image is that it does provide a lot of information that you wouldn't get otherwise about the z dimension, for example you can easily see that in the cluster of buildings on the left side of the image, the building with the pyramid cap is the tallest -- indeed that it has a pyramidal cap. Generally, with imagery, you want one taken in the early morning or late afternoon, especially in low latitudes like Miami. A low sun throws a lot of detail into relief, and a high sun tends to wash it out.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The problem is, more and more it seems like providing a presentation/UI that doesn't stink out loud is innovation.
To take Google maps as an example - I hadn't found a website that provided streetmaps of the UK with a decent UI. The existing sites would scroll (sorry, page) unreliably, often sending you somewhere that is almost, but not completely, unadjacent to your last view. And let's not forget their favourite - limit the map to a goddamn postage stamp, even though I have a 1280x1024 display, and surround it with distracting garbage.
With Google maps, it's simple and clear, I can maximise the window and the map fills the screen (shock horror!), scroll around as quickly or slowly as I like, and zoom in and out to the level I want, etc.
In some ways, you could say that this is the definition of innovation. Yes, it's obvious, but no-one else seemed to be doing it. (I've seen some better sites since Google Maps launched - that pre-dated Google Maps - but they're still not as simple and easy to use).
I'm reminded of something a friend once said about the iPod - that when the iPod was launched, everyone agreed, yes, this is how mp3 players should be designed and work. Everyone, that is, except all the other companies who made mp3 players.
My point is, some companies/websites will look at a site like Google Maps, and just not get why it is better, and just bitch about how they've been doing maps for ages, so what's so special about Google?
Actually, the first generation of this technology was developed by Microsoft. It's not as nice as Google sattelite maps, but it is older. It's called TerraServer and it's still in operation now. If anything, Google copied this idea and refined it. Microsoft TerraServer
Just like anything else, different maps have different purposes. That's why different maps exist. For driving directions, sure a street map is great (after all, you drive on...streets)! However, what if you were looking for a good place to hang-glide? A street map will not help you. What about a nice remote spot on a beach? What if you were a trucker, who hauls houses (over-height), and you needed to plan a route that had no bridges (you can get maps from the city for this, BUT quality satellite maps may make this obsolete someday)?
Surviving America
Notice how long Longhorn has been in the paddocks? Microsoft is waiting for a credible threat until they release Longhorn. The threat is not here yet.
I call bullshit. The delays in the release of longhorn have absolutely nothing to do with MS bidding their time. MS has every reason in the world to release longhorn as soon as possible. Sales of XP are leveling off as the market is saturated. They've missed their projected Income as reported by multiple sources for the first time since they've started doing so. MS is running the new marketing campaign specifically aimed at helping to increase growth until they can push longhorn out. And if you still belive that MS is just sitting on their next egg, go grab the latest longhorn release from bittorrent and give it a shot. Then decide if you think it's really ready for retail.
I'll believe in corporations having personhood when Texas executes one... - advocate_one