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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
....wonder when we'll see the beta of "Google Flight Simulator"....
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Gee, in that case I KNOW who'll make more money off their image search! AND have the most loyal customers ...
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.
this page was active in January of 1999, maybe google should stop copying other peoples ideas.
It's not as if the Sound, Long Island's North Shore, or the Connecticut Shoreline areas haven't been photographed countless times by state and Federal agencies. I'm surprised that Microsoft exposed something that looks so slapdash to the public.
Oh, wait...
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Hey, I'm teasing! Calm down!
Use MSN to see where you grew up before the freeway went through.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Microsoft has been doing this for a LONG time. Much longer than Google. What were you saying now???
MS Virtual Earth zoomed all the way out
According to The Register MS still has the Twin Towers in all their finery (but Apple HQ seems not to have been built yet)
In most other realms, competition is viewed as a good thing. It seems that with Microsoft (or any other large software company) that they want to completely squash the opposition.
Where did that land them before? In court for an anti-trust lawsuit. (Which seems to have had very little, if any, impact on them as a company. How many billions of dollars busiess do they do in a year?)
Competition should be the motivation to strive for excellence, not to hit your competition over the head with a giant iron hammer that still has yet to be patched with SP2.
And they said zombies weren't real!
You ARE aware that Microsoft had both maps AND sat images before Google, right?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
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.