Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft and Google Fighting for the Skies
Robert writes "Today's SF Chronicle has an article about Microsoft and Google's new battle for the skies. Both companies now have similar products that combine maps and satellite photos. Roads and driving directions can be superimposed on imagery on both products." From the article: "Google and Microsoft are engaged in a major battle over Internet users. Each has unveiled a series of features designed to keep users loyal and grab a bigger share of the lucrative search-engine market.
Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, also is a major competitor, though its executives have yet to express any interest in aerial images. Amazon.com offers street- level photographs of businesses through its A9.com search engine. "
Too bad MSN doesn't work in Canada at all, while Google works great. I do find it kind of funny that "Virtual Earth" is USA-only.. ;)
That said, MSN has hi-res images of my cottage (which is right on the border, and only JUST made it in) while Google only has low-res images of that area.
Speak before you think
I've implemented mapping solutions for large vendor applications and the business benefits for it are awesome when it is implemented properly. The major impediment was the multiple thousand dollar cost. Web solutions allow the data holder to centralize the data, update it more often and fix issues faster. Googles *and* Mircrosoft's work on allowing you to overlay custom data is brilliant when you consider that Google maps can now be a service within an application architecture. Microsoft is not coopting or stealing Google's idea, far from it. This concept and its use in software is probably 20 years old and it has been becomeing more and more mainstream in applications. It is just being brought to the masses now.
I like the maps available with both services and have extended Google Map API into some pretty neat tools. I don't see a ton of use out of the current imagery offered by either service though. In both cases the resolution offered makes it hard to identify most places. Is it just for the 'cool' factor or are there really significant uses for it? I'm assuming there must be and I just don't know what they are. To me the street maps are 100x more useful, which is also the reason I don't understand the use of Google Earth. Sure I think it's very cool but why doesn't it include the street maps, and what is the use of putting the 3D shape of buildings on it? I'm being 100% serious, someone please enlighten me.
According to The Register MS still has the Twin Towers in all their finery (but Apple HQ seems not to have been built yet)
True! MSN is still using pictures from early 1997. My house was built in May of 97 and MSN still shows it as an empty lot. You'd think they'd actually try to put something recent together instead of just cobbling up a new interface to Terrasever. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
FWIW, Google didn't build Google maps or Google earth. NEITHER were invented by google. Both were acquisitions (WhereTo and Keyhole respectively.
Interesting to note a lot of the hypocrisy related to innovation vs acquisition over the last few days. It seems that when Microsoft acquires a company or technology, it is labeled as playing catch up. When Google acquires a company (or 2 in this case) they are widely credited as innovators.