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."

Comments

All right!

[tomhudson]

*Satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods *Satellite images with street map overlays

So when can I import them into Sim City? (that would be a kickass version, esp. if it worked in real-time).

Will they open up the APIs?

[guyfromindia]

Via web-services?
I guess not! Further, with google, you can do cool things like http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/ and http://labs.google.com/ridefinder.
I betcha MSN's service will not be that flexible. But, I guarantee that it will have all kinds of bells and whistles. (some may really like 45 deg tilt views).
Right now, google works for me. Let's see how MSFT's presentation is, when it comes to fruit!

Re:Will they open up the APIs?

[tomhudson]

But, I guarantee that it will have all kinds of bells and whistles. (some may really like 45 deg tilt views).

45 degree tilt helps. Just try to find the CN tower from a straight-down shot. It might be one of the tallest structures in the world, but on Google Maps its only really noticeable because of the shadow it casts.

I'm no Microsoft fanboy, but competition is good. How much you want to bet Google comes out with something like this soon as an "optional view" or something?

Re:Will they open up the APIs?

[Anonymous Coward]

ME TOO! I'm no MSFT fanboy either, but the demo they show here is amazing. The 'hybrid view' rules even more than the 45 degree view! I thought maps.google.com was incredible but this is far better. http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/4/a/64a8e 731-6cf5-4609-999c-1da1c2767040/virtual_earth_2005 _channel9_video.wmv

MS vs. Google

[Fraize]

Listening to TWiT this morning (Episode 6) there are a lot of arenas where Google and MS are going to be intruding on each others space. Leo made mention of a GoogleFS with a focus on searching. Hey, MS couldn't do it in time, perhaps Google can.

So, will Google become the next monolithic organization that must be destroyed by the Slashdot jackboots?

Re:either you are a leader or a follower

[mgrest]

How very wrong you are. Being first to market is not neccessarily the best thing.

You'll find that the people who make money are just fulfilling demand in an existing market, not creating new markets.

This is, of course, based on the assumption that you measure the success of a company by how much money they make....

Re:Vapourware?

[aussie_a]

Yeah, I love how gmail has barely been mentioned because it's still in beta. Most people haven't even heard of gmail, although once it's out of beta I'm sure plenty of people will use it then, unlike now.

Re:either you are a leader or a follower

[ScentCone]

I'm reminded of the saying: "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

Why is this one company again?

[MosesJones]

I wonder where MSN got the investment budget for this, off Microsoft or via their own investment/R&D programme.

I'm still very unclear why what Microsoft does in taking Office revenues and subsidising other elements doesn't count as cross-subsidy and thus be in violation of WTO rules.

Anyone else have a clue?

Ufos!

[Underholdning]

The first thing I'll check is, if the blob is present on MSN maps as well. If it is, I'll buy stocks in the nearest tin foil store.

Re:Better for spotting UFOs

[deetsay]

Shockingly, Microsoft has removed the anomaly from their shot, disguising it to look like just another house!

Re:either you are a leader or a follower

[Anonymous Coward]

and it seems Microsoft are following, if you have to keep measuring yourself up, you have already lost

Just like Google started the first web search eng... oops.

Just like Google started the first online mappi... oops.

Just like Google started the first online newsgroup sear.... oops.

Just like Google started the first online image sea.... oops.

Just liek Google started the first "local" specific content dir... ooops.

Unless you're the innovator, you at somepoint must follow (including everyones beloved Google).

Competition for free products

[jerde]

How cool is it that these companies are competing for the best service to give away for FREE!

It's fascinating to think of all these amazing "free" services we have access to, and how they're actually paid for. All that money comes from a "tax" we pay in the form of slightly higher prices on consumer goods. This tax isn't collected by any government, but by the advertising industry.

In this way, there really is real "value" to Cool Stuff(tm) because the more appealing it is, the more people will see it, and the more valuable it is as advertising real estate.

Re:Better for spotting UFOs

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been shown that those are simply markers
for the map. They are found all over the place
dues east-west and north-south

Re:either you are a leader or a follower

[zero_offset]

Original innovator? Ever heard of Terraserver? Um, yeah... Microsoft did it first.
(And it didn't look like ass, unlike the new non-MS site currently living at terraserver.com...)

45 degrees?

[should_be_linear]

Unless they invented semi-transparent-building-photo technology, I don't see how they will show any city downtown?

Earth moon and satellite viewers

[HermanAB]

See these cool sites:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/

and this:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html

Lots of fun playing with that that, hope the MS stuff is even better.

Re:either you are a leader or a follower

[James.Stanton]

Incompatible ways, like having a documented SOAP interface to their mapping product for several years? Or maybe hacking crappy client-side javascript is the 'superior compatible' way.

Where exactly?

[bcore]

Where exactly where has this been shown "all over the place"? If anything, google sighseeing seems to discredit this theory.

Re:Sure you can.

[ad0gg]

You're joking right?

Xbox is bigger than nintendo cube and posted a profit.
PocketPC has more market share than palm.
IE has ~90% market share.
MSN search traffic is up, google is declining
MSN is the second largest ISP in the world.

Microsoft doesn't know how to fail. They have taken over the PDA market by ousting palm. They will take over cell market. Growth of MSN search engine suggest they'll oust google. Only things i'm not sure about is game consoles, if sony doesn't live up to the hype, microsoft will own that market too.