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Google Maps vs the Rest
Andrew writes "Shortflip.com has an interesting article on the history, present, and future of 3D satellite imaging applications. Obviously they focus on Google Maps, but they make a good case for Google's competitors, although it's hard to imagine anyone being able to challenge Google's market share in the near future. Emphasis is on user features, map accuracy, and future technology."
True 'dat. DOUBLE TRUE.
I've tried Google Maps looking at where I live. I prefer http://www.zillow.com/ which is tens of times better in resolution.
(This isn't an aim at advertising. It's just my opinion because I tried the rest.)
by google maps you mean google earth- the *3D* map viewer ?
My name is coaxeus, and I approve this message. In fact, I think it is awesome.
google maps is the best, true dat
Where was Google five years ago? (LOL)
On a satellite imaging program that allows me to zoom in on a nude beach.
:D
If you could do it in movies in the early 90's, you would think by now in 2006 there would be a version we all can use to perve on our naturalist friends.
yes, it has to be done:
Two! No, Six! No, Twelve! Baker's Dozen!
I told'ja that I'm crazy for these cupcakes, cousin!
Yo, where's the movie playin'?
Upper West Side, dude!
Let's hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route.
I prefer Mapquest!
That's a good one too.
Google Maps is the best!
True that! Double true!
Samberg: I prefer Map quest
Parnell: That's a good one too
Samberg: Google maps is the best
Parnell: True dat
Together: DOUBLE TRUE!
Obviously they focus on Google Maps
This is Slashdot.
really 867993
Karma schkarma
The article's really about Google Earth, not Google Maps...
He who has the freshest, most accurate, highest resolution images, wins !
Thats the first reason i use Google Maps, cos' i can see my house from there , what more do you need ?
For me especially, I would expect to enter place names in the search bar and have google locate them for me.
I was trying to get things like Washington to come up and lots of other places here in England.
The only constant way I can find anything is by post code, but that takes half the fun away.
liqbase
It is practically useless to me, since it doesn't have hi-res satellite or aerial photography and maps for most of Europe except Great Britain and Ireland.
So if they want to be the best, they should improve on that area, and include at least Europe on Google Maps.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Is google the only mapping service with an API?
MSN Developers channel9.com
Google's mathmatical view of the earth is horrible... go to some other service that uses the USGS aerials and lookup up a confluence (integer latitude/longitude), and you'll likely see it marking the datum/calibration tick. Now do the same with Google and see just how far off their X is.
perhaps you should get out more
Google is worldwide, it benefits more people outside USA than within
pop that bubble
http://local.live.com/ has a "birds eye view" feature that blows away any satellite imagery I have seen to date. Multiple angles and super sharp resolution. It is not available everywhere and the images are not contiguous but it is still a great feature.
I am not a huge fan of MS products (since my workstation is a Linux box) but the interface of Live local is really nice. Right click support, saved state (I like the google driving direction overlay better) and a nice overall feel. And it works great on my linux box with firefox. Yahoo maps is okay, but of the three I think MS is at present the best (though hopefully google will soon come up with something new in their maps)
For my day to day needs, which is to get from point a to point b, google maps is nearly useless. The direction range from rediculous to absurd. For the gee-whiz let's play and learn about the world, Google rocks. But which application is going to generate more appreciation of the brand. Play time with satilite images, or proper directions?
My disilusionment with google is the inability to create code that will truly organize the worlds information that they seem to love to collect. To me, Froogle is nowhere as useful as Yahoo Shopping. Google Maps is nowhere as useful as Mapquest. My total saved email from a decade past, not include nearly a decade past that archived, is a few hundred megabytes, and has never challenged the storage capacity of any server I have been on, and has greatfully been deleted when i wanted it to be.
So what i see with google is feature bloat resulting from a need to parade whiz bang pictures in front of investors, with little benifit to the end user. Sure satilite images are cool, but if if really needed them, we could have gotten them.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
But I find http://local.live.com/ to be a little nicer for checking out what a huge place America really is. You can mark points of interest, zoom with the mousewheel, and get a nifty birds-eye view of a lot of places. Its in beta (and it shows), but has a lot of promise. The only thing wrong with it is its failure to work in safari (but it does fine in firefox and exploder) and some minor bugs (mousewheeling will sometimes zoom and other times pan).
By default, you probably want the fastest (hourly) route from A to B.
Sometimes, you want to take the scenic route.
If there's a city on the scenic route, it's often too small to appear in Google's database of place names, and/or you'll have to Google for the ZIP code for East Bumfuck, Mississippi.
Furthermore, the more miles you want to log on the scenic route, the more likely it is that even if you are able to find city/ZIP combinations that correspond to places on the scenic route, the direction-guessing software will still suggest that to drive the 60 miles of scenic winding road between "East Bumfuck, MS" to "West Bumfuck, MS", for example, is to backtrack 5 miles, get on the Interstate, drive 50 miles at 60 mph, until you're 5 miles past your destination, where you backtrack to your destination. (Because 70 miles, 60 of which are at highway speeds, takes less time than 60 miles, all of which are at 25-30 mph.)
So - waypoints. A UI feature in "Directions" to say "add waypoint", such that directions from A to B are be calculated such that you pass through each (arbitrarily) selected waypoint in between.
...until The Earth comes out of beta.
Google Earth is a fantastic tool for planning bike rides. Set its altitude multiplier to 3x and all the hills jump right out at you, making it obvious what the best bike routes are. All it's missing is route planning with an "avoid highways" and/or waypoint option.
So far there are only google maps for a few elect countries, and most of the world can only see photos and national boundaries.
Sites as map24 (Warning JAVA interface) have actual _maps_ for the "rest of the World". That makes me user their services instead of Google.
-><- no
I wish the Google Maps website query language were as simple and expressive as the wellknown Web search. Instead, I have to use exactly "W 125th St & Broadway", instead of searching for any of "125St at Broadway" or "W125 and Broadway" etc, even though those styles all refer to the same intersection. How about clicking on any point, and getting its "coordinates" in a popup? Clicking a few points to define an itinerary?
I'd like to see their GUI highlight an entire street for its entire length, just by naming it. And exit numbers on highways. And mass transit route layers, or at least just stops identified.
I know it's free, and it's "Beta". I know their standalone Earth app has lots more features. But they pulled it off with text Web searches. I'd like to love their maps as much as their links.
--
make install -not war
You know, everytime I want to bring up a map, I still type in mapquest in the URL.
I know Google maps exists, but typing google in the URL brings up http://www.google.com./
Typing mapquest in the URL takes me directly to http://www.mapquest.com./
They both give me the exact same results, just one gets me there quicker than the other.
The article is in my opinion well-rounded and truthful with no fanboyism on either side, And as a co-admin on the NASA World Wind forums, it pains me to say that!
I'm particularly looking forward to Microsoft's offering since I know some of the imagery they have lined up, and "neat" describes it pretty well.
2006 will be an interesting year for imagery on the desktop, especially with ESRI getting in on the act, too - their app, ArcGIS Explorer, looks extremely nice: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/
£5.99 domain registration/transfer: the cheapest in Europe
"Let's hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route.
I prefer Mapquest!
That's a good one too.
Google Maps is the best!
True that! Double true!"
Google was barely making a blip in 1998 when they were just coming out of Stanford. They weren't going to compete with anyone. Then the bubble burst and left the smaller companies in a great position. Now the student has become the master. Google is setting us up for the next bubble. When it breaks, Google will have to scale back its operations and somebody else will come along with the next best thing.
I mean honestly, what tangible assets does Google have? They have a few stellar software products and services, but AdSense is their money maker. Sooner or later I think it will hit the fan...hopefully later.
The article seemed all over the place - in dealing both with google earth and google maps. In any case, I just tried maps.ask.com today and it seems pretty good - it does both walking and driving directions with the satellite and scrolling shenanigans that everyone else uses. It also lets you plot out routes with up to 10 destinations. It's at least worth a try.
they have these things, called bookmarks, where YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TYPE AT ALL! :-)
I prefer mapquest over Google Map when i just want to avoid highways/freeway route to the destination something which google map doesn't have currently. And when it comes to resolution of the satellite view i prefer to use microsoft's live.local.com. Resolution is really good. Only when i need just the freeway route information i use Google Map. Mapquest is much better when it comes to searching the alternative route.
If Google made Google Earth Plus compatible with a real-time GPS (currently you can only load a file) I'd be willing to part with the $20 for the app. Especially if they made this feature available on the Mac OS X version of the app. (Third-party solutions only work on Windows 2000/XP)
Another cool feature would be creating a mobile version of Google Maps for cell phones (there are 2 or 3 that exist, but they aren't that great - especially when they shrink the computer version of Google Maps to the size of a cell phone screen).
Convincing the cell network providers to give us accurate GPS info of our location from our phones (E911 gives that to the emergency services right now in most places in Canada and the US) for a fee would also be a great idea.
I don't care how many features there are, or how well-done the interfaces are, if these apps can't provide the imagery, they won't be worth much to me. There are huge, huge swaths of densely populated areas that simply do not have any image data available on Google Maps and all of the bells and whistles can't fix that and won't make me any more interested in firing up the app again anytime soon.
I have been using Google maps for some time... but I really love Map24 (http://www.map24.com../ It's a onestop shop for maps in USA, Europe, Brazil and the Middle East. Although its java interface is a little 'heavy', its worth it... Google maps have some routing issues as well... the routes are not always 'optimized'. *peace*
Here, take a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done reading it...oh, well!
That's a good one too...
although it's hard to imagine anyone being able to challenge Google's market share in the near future
I agree that it's extremely hard, and very few humans on this planet can do it, but one tries really hard, it's actually possible to imagine someone beating 9.45%.
Don't try this at home.
Exactly where you are _now_, comrade.
;-P
(C) Nikita Krushev.
PS: OTOH, you might repeat Googles's astounding success (and I really mean Success, not money amassed).
Chances are you won't, though. Have a nice day. LOL to you, too...
Not to mention, yeh, the images are also several years older than the ones on google.
tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
Is who I put my money on to ultimately win the mapping war. POSSIBLY Yahoo!. Their business is much more global, so perhaps they will actually get shit mapped outside of the US/Canada/UK and makes services that we can all use. I know that the first one to cover Australia will have me use them instead of competitors because they actually got off their ass and improved coverage
It's all about where you live, and how much you care. Personally, I use it mostly for novelty, and I imagine that's a fairly common use for these things. And I use google maps for directions, just because it seems to have less crap on the page, and I like to just zig/zag around the ending location, for the details I really need. Where I am, I just tried zillow, live, and google. Live and google have almost, if not exactly the same rez, but google appears to have run a sharpening on it. Zillow didn't even come close.
MSFT's going to try and combat this via their recent acquisition of SeaDragon and have more of a wow factor in zooming in and out.
Or that 18 year old you think you're looking at might be 80, especially in Florida or Europe...
As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
I've noticed that Carl Bialik from Wall Street Journal has a Slashdot user account that proudly and upfrontly states that he works and writes for the Wall Street Journal, and with that disclaimer I have no problem with someone submitting their own stories. However, I sort of had the feeling that "Andrew" was pumping his own site, but no disclaimer. Oddly, the shortflip.com site has no names of authors, proprietors, business owners, or anything. Their whois record lists a registrar as "Domains by Proxy". There is absolutely no mention of any names at all on the website, even on the articles! A quick Google search for shortflip turns up a digg account of someone working for shortflip who is also pumping their own site, who I assume is "Andrew".
.02
I'm sure it's just me being anal but I think the ethical thing to do here is to mention that yes, you are pumping your own site, and not to go to extreme lengths to cover your tracks. Dude, no one cares that you are pumping your site, but doing it under the guide of some neutral third party is sort of shady. My
I think it would be useful if gMaps could overlay current weather radar images on their maps (especially in the hybrid view). It's odd, one service that Google doesn't offer (to my knowledge) is local weather reports.
You mean "Europe". Where's Australia? What about us Australians, you insensitive clod!
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
When I'm using these map tools to head somewhere specific (and not just messing around trying to see my house from the air), I print out map directions. Granted - I only do this a couple of times a year, but it's much cheaper than spending money for any sort of GPS system - and is also much easier than struggling with the overdetailed paper maps that I have in my car (I only use those if I get lost).
And for these printed ink-on-paper directions when I need these tools the most - Yahoo maps is infinitely superior compared to Google Maps. It prints beautifully.
With Yahoo, the directions are still available as an HTML *document* that translates nicely to paper. Google Maps is clearly an *application* - it's impossibly unfriendly when on paper and is burdened with interactivity.
In short: Google Maps is a nice toy and useful for finding places you're already vaguely familiar with - but Yahoo and Mapquest are the tools that get the job done.
.... they want your pass back.
Here is a link to it: http://tinyurl.com/n8s8t
-- gis junkie
windows live local: http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=49.15432 ~-121.935335&style=h&lvl=13p n=0.00247,0.005032&t=k
google maps local: http://maps.google.com/?ll=49.15432,-121.935335&s
exact same log/lat... but look how much further google zooms in. It is a cow town in chilliwack with only 70000 people or somthing
If you can't make out the details, they are all 18.
Out of Google and Microsoft's offerings, Google has the most coverage outside of the US. Take a look at these links for example. I'll compare cities around the world and their coverage in the two offerings.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Google : http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=Deerfoot +Mall+in+Calgary&ll=51.109659,-114.042329&spn=0.00 3287,0.007317&t=k
Microsoft : http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=51.04463 2~-114.067612&style=h&lvl=13&sp=adr.64%2C%20Opelik a%2C%20AL%2036801
Tokyo, Japan
Google : http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=Tokyo&ll =35.680119,139.814796&spn=0.002126,0.005407&t=k
Microsoft : http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=35.67961 ~139.770813&style=h&lvl=9&sp=adr.64%2C%20Opelika%2 C%20AL%2036801
London, England
Google : http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=London,+ England&ll=51.500197,-0.126197&spn=0.000815,0.0027 04&t=k
Microsoft : http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=51.51841 5~-0.102238&style=h&lvl=13&sp=adr.64%2C%20Opelika% 2C%20AL%2036801
Berlin, Germany
Google : http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=Berlin&l l=52.52,13.38&spn=0.001593,0.005407&t=k
Microsoft : http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=52.52123 5~13.378601&style=h&lvl=9&sp=adr.64%2C%20Opelika%2 C%20AL%2036801
Cairo, Egypt
Google : http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=Cairo&ll =30.059999,31.25&spn=0.002266,0.005407&t=k
Microsoft : http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=30.06434 ~31.245117&style=h&lvl=9&sp=adr.64%2C%20Opelika%2C %20AL%2036801
Moscow, Russia
Google : http://local.google.com/local?f=q&hl=en&q=Moscow&l l=55.756024,37.59353&spn=0.001473,0.005407&t=k
Microsoft : http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=55.75184 9~37.614441&style=h&lvl=9&sp=adr.64%2C%20Opelika%2 C%20AL%2036801
You'll n
I get there instantly by going to maps.google.com and there are no ads clogging the screen, the map window is huge and the map search works really well and quickly. I have tried some of the other so-called competition sites to google maps and in my opinion nothing else is even in the same league.
Meh.
Google maps is great in US (okay Canada, UK, Japan and the city of Torino to make sure that US Olympic team does not get lost), but for the rest of the world it is pretty much useless (no directions, no street numbers, metro stations, etc.).
In Europe, mappy.com provides satellite maps but for some cities it also provides pictures of the front of buildings and for several years now. I heard that Google tried to do the same with some buildings in San Francisco, last year or so, but I don't see the result in Google maps.
One market that Google is not taking advantage of is DOD. They want to charge close to half a million dollars per server and insist that there be a server at each site. Since we are on closed networks, we cannot access teh interweb. The users seem to want it, but Google's greediness is preventing them from having it. I am working on my second 3D map implementation (switched companies) and we are providing our software free of licensing fees to the goverment. Google does not access the formats of imagery that the DOD uses that I know of, which might be higher resolution and newer with annotations. I guess my point here is that Google could charge a nominal fee, or work a deal for a certain number of servers, instead they were greedy and someone else will fill the void... and our stuff runs win/lin/mac/unix, which we are proud of
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
If you happen to live in/work in/care about Nebraska, take a look at the CALMIT Map Server; it has detailed color maps of the entire state (make sure you select the 2003 Farm Service Agency image layer).
The CALMIT interface isn't all that great, but hey, nothing's perfect.
Why google why, I can punch in any route that goes through a toll road, and it will produce a direct route.. but no, not for the Florida Turnpike.. Damn you, you always take me on my route from Orlando to Atlanta, 40 more miles out of my way, by not using the turnpike... still 3
Idiotic javascript alert() loop above.
Moderate down.
Check this out: http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=47.63942 2~-122.127583&style=o&lvl=2&scene=3729998&sp=adr.1 %20Microsoft%20Way%2C%20Redmond%2C%20WA%2098052
You can freakin' see Bill Gates there almost.
Well, for a non-US resident (Canada in my cae), I would say that if I want to know the directions from point A to point B (in Montreal for example), I'd rather use either Yahoo! Maps or Mapquest. The results are better.
Luckily, I know Montreal Streets a little, so I can judge the value of the directions given. And Google never makes the mark for me (almost never the most efficient road.)
However, if I want to see interesting pictures, Google Map/Earth is the best thing I know.
Montreal - Best city to live in!
Bastard, you quoting it like that forced me watch it again! It appears they've removed it from youtube, I could only find a cruddy version elsewhere.
However, in my way to find it, I found a couple of interesting follow-up responses. Not as good as original, but they do try to capture the flavor of the first.
Original...
West Coast response...
Muncie Response... All mention google maps in some form.
The best one out there is Yahoo Maps. Google maps never gets the directions right, confusing one way streets, the print outs are horrible to read in the car aswell.
Wreck Beach near UBC, Vancouver, Canada.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
When Google maps went online, the building I work in wasn't on it, despite being a year old. Next month, we move out of this building and I note that Google maps now have up-to-date image of its construction nearing completion (a little over two years after we moved into it).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I noticed that of all the mapping sites, the Virtual Earth (Live Local) one is the only one that actually has good printing support. You get a whole bunch of options for changing how the printouts look. Printing should be a greater focus on all the mapping services since that's really what you tend to do with driving directions.
from the TFA.....
Google Earth will not replace high tech programs like AutoCAD or ESRI's ArcGIS
The topic missing from this discussion is a simple question: Where does all this data come from?.
You can't plan bike routes, model road trips, view cityscapes, etc. unless you have good data to start with. Neither Google Earth nor KML function to build geographic data. The tools for doing that are as follows: v
ArcGIS, for vector-based data and some imagery.
ERDAS IMAGINE, for imagery, and
for all you open source kiddies:
GRASS and GRASS for Macs
Without these basic development tools, client-side web apps like Google Earth don't exist. These data have a long history and complex standards for verification and use.
In a community normally so concerned with standards, metadata, etc., I am surprised by the Gee whiz view comparing Google Earth and similar client side apps.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard Feynman
I'm not using until they package it in a miniscule pocket device with four or five buttons arranged in a white circle.
Maybe they could call it "iDiot."
Web 2.0 == Giant Blogspam Circle Jerk
All "Lazy Sunday" references aside, I would really appreciate it if Google Maps would add an "avoid highways" option.
Love your sig!
Coming at you from near atwater metro
I saw the Sign, and it opened up my eyes
I can't tell how many times I enter an address in Google maps (or do a search in google and take it from there). 2 out of 3 times the place I end up is in the general vicinity but way off (by 1-2 MILES). Not acceptable.
I'll probably regret this, since it is not really ready, but what the hell (shameless plug here):
v map_a
http://daemmonhughes.com/mapper?map1=gmap_m&map2=
If I'm already zoomed in so that everything on the screen is in a single city, which is - oh - almost 100% of the time, then typing in "123 Anyplace" should automatically presume that, yes, I want the one that's in the city I'm currently looking at. Not the one in Des Moines, IA (unless that's where I'm looking which, for me at any rate, is rare). This would be especially nice when searching for directions.
And I agree with the parent about clicking - there have been many times when I want to say, "Get me the fastest route to <here>, without having to guess at how to describe it, especially when its not understanding my intersection syntax.
Oh, and speaking of guessing, if I ask for an address and it doesn't have a good match, but it only comes up with one possible alternative, 99% of the time I'll click it anyway to find out. A simple "Go Back" (and, hey, the back button works for me) would obliviate this extra step. Now this should only happen by default when there's only one choice, but that would save me a metric ****load of frustration.
Finally, what happened to mousewheel zooming? I know that at one point it was working on at least one of my computers. Then it stopped, never to return. Or was it all just a dream?
GoogleMaps is so close to great its painful. If they could just be Google, do what they do best, and fix those last annoying times when you realize that you're "Using GoogleMaps" instead of "Getting Directions"... then, my friends, it will truly rule.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Where are there statistics for any type of map site to be the leader? There's still not one that's perfect.
Google Maps has the API you can hook into and the neat-o hybrid views, but its ability to properly tell directions is awful. It's happened enough that I know not to rely on it.
MapQuest has great directions but the interface is still a bit 1999; also, it assumes that when you print you want a map the size of a cracker surrounded by ads and whitespace.
Map24 is hands-down my favorite for browsing a site AND its interface was around a LONG time before Google's. However, for directions it's worthless.
And Yahoo Maps seems nice (especially the beta traffic advisories) but otherwise it's similar to MapQuest and I just use MQ as force of habit.
That said, I can't imagine Google has the majority (50%+) market share out of this group. Perhaps their maps are accessed more than any others, but for the classic use of directions, I don't see them being #1 since they're not that much better than the others.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
i am most impressed with the multi directional views from msn local i find looking at a builgind using a sim city view much better than from above.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Anybody ever played with this? All perl based grabbing images from topozone. The topozone maps are slow but very good at high res in many u.s. areas.
It also does a terrible job at estimating how long a trip should take. I have been wondering if it mistakes the km's for miles, then calculates things. That's how far off the times are
What about Ask.com's map system? Its fantastic - I did a review on it - superior to Google
Er, no. Google bought Keyhole, which has been working for several years now. I've had a paid Keyhole account for years. Google's innovation is giving it away, and offering a more limited version in a standard browser.
An obvious wrinkle for Google Earth (distinct from Maps but related) is to algorithmically interconnect the several projections to the same GIS database, including Fuller's. It'd be a coup for Google. I'm surprise the marketing people at least haven't gotten on the bandwagon. Sure, it's obscure, but isn't that what Geeks like, something not all that run-o-the-mill?
Kirby
ALL realities are 'virtual'
Which mapping service can find my house.
Reason: It's a new development. I've lived here now for about 15 months, construction started about 30 months ago.
maps.google.com - Thinks I am trying to look something up in France.
www.mapquest.com - Places a really nice pushpin right where my house is, but there are no roads there for the development. So that's interesting, graphics out of sync with database.
maps.live.com - It's trying to find something over in a town 10 miles away. A restaurant with a name sounding similar to my road.
maps.yahoo.com - BINGO! Found my house, displays the roads which have been here for a year, even if it doesn't have the most recently built roads in there. Yahoo! has earned eternal loyalty from this customer for knowing where I live.
Another friend of mine lives in a similar situation. New development. He tried calling Pizza Hut to order delivery pizza. Response was he wasn't in there service area. 3 months later, same answer. 6 months later same answer. His neighbor's kid actually works delivery for the pizza hut and knows where the house is, but the computer system which hasn't been updated in years won't allow the order because it can't locate the address.
But on the bright side, the computers are probably updated more frequently than paper maps stuck in my glovebox.
I tried Virtual Earth and switched. I liked the images, the scratchpad and the driving directions are MUCH better. Overall, it just feels mor polished, evne though it is quite a bit newer. I tried the Yahoo beta but hate the use of Flash and find it slightly awkward and cluttered.
/. will hate and reject anything MS does, but MS is on the right path here. In any case, competition benefits us all, no mater which one you choose.
I know that a lot of folks on
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7078/fu ll/439776a.html
Whoever wrote the originally submitted article doesn't know too much about the subject, like the difference between Google Maps and Google Earth, or that Google Earth has existed since 2000 under its previous name, Keyhole, or that the key thing is not just being able to see a nice picture (which we could do from static aerial, satellite photos since the 90s) but how it all integrates and navigates as a whole.
You should try using the Infinium Keyboard I found just by using it Google results in all categories improved by over 88%!!
I just put in my pre-order!
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
.. for someone to use this pool!
I used it exclusively. Well, until it changed to local.live.com and stopped working with Safari.
Microsoft, what the hell is wrong with you? Don't you want me to use your system? It's been months.
I started using Virtual Earth at first because mapblast (MS' directions site) is far better than mapquest or anything else for directions. Line drive maps 4 life.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I shy away from most things Microsoft, but honestly, they blow away the competition in so many small services (which is overshadowed by their OS flaws most of the time). For instance, I think for video conferencing, Microsoft has the upper hand their version on MSN which looks really nice maximized on a TV set (living room video phone setup).
Microsoft's Live Local is truely an exciting picture to see even after using Google Earth/Maps. The "Bird's Eye" view of my own house is a bit dated but very detailed. I shows the top of a swing on my back deck that I no longer own. I can make out my car parked out front. What's also amazing is being able to "swing" the picture around. Because it's at an angle, not every picture was taken at the same time.
But what really scares me here is that the resolution here is so good that if it were detailed any more, you could see into any of my windows. That's not a problem with direct overhead pictures that Google uses. A 45 degree downward slope angle makes me want to double check that not even the open sky is visible above my shower curtain.
I think there are too many doomsday scenario people out there, like the recent ruffle over MySpace which is completely overblown. But, let's take the natural progression of this technology to a few years down the road. Higher resolutions and daily or live images. You're a single woman living at home. Do you really want someone looking into your windows at high resolution? A married person may see it as a double edged sword. On one hand, the husband can make sure the milk man isn't staying 3 hours at his house. On the other, a stalker could watch for a husband to leave, police to go on break, and no service trucks enter the area before deciding to attack the person still in the house, or rob it if no one is in it.
Empowering criminals as if they were mafia hitmen with 20 accomplices is not my idea of meaningful progress. I think the current detail and timeframes are really as far as this should go. When it gets to the point of actually looking into our houses, then it goes too far. I'm sure the government can already do this. I may not like it, but I rather it just be the government, not every pervert with a computer.
I8-D
... a few small towns in Europe you may have heard of ;-)
Or check out a few other European locations on the map. I'm sure google will eventually come up with them, the satellite data is there. But for now, www.multimap.com is the best European option online.
It seems it only shows houses that are for sale:
d =1600+pennsylvania+av&citystatezip=washington+dc&m ode=search
http://www.zillow.com/search/Search.z?addrstrthoo
I'm not sure about anyone else, but personally I think that the whole "Maps" bit of the Google Maps/Local/Earth is rather disappointing.
Being a resident of the UK, I've become used to commonly available incredibly high quality mapping courtesy of the Ordnance Survey, and frankly, the basic cartography of the Google database (Roads, railways, and not much else) leaves a lot to be desired.
This is the main reason why given a choice I'll only use Google local to get the postcode I want, then jump to Multimap or Streetmap to get some useable mapping. Also on both of those sites the resolution of the satellite imagery is generally greater (OK, Google has some cities in hi-res, but my whole village appears as a blob. On multimap I can find my hedge). I'm not trying to rubbish Google (dispite becoming rapidly more and more dissilusioned with them), Google Earth is an impressive program, and the availability of a vector mapping database can only be good news, allowing smooth scrolling and panning. However, I don't see why people are going so dewy eyed of this - It's just eye-candy + google brand name, If you want to get anywhere though, I'd choose and OS map (paper or otherwise) over google any day.
While google maps/earth is useful for navigation what they and other online maps seem to be missing is the terrain contour lines.
/ has online UK maps with this data (try searching for Buttermere).
Now these don't look very pretty, but if you know how to use them you can read off the altitude & gradient of terrain features. Very useful if you're planning to do some hiking.
Though I have partly answered myself - the OS website http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap
-- The Heineken Uncertainty Principle: You can never be sure how many bears you had last night.
All this seems to be missing the point, which is that we need a source of free map data. (Free as in speech.) Presumably any satellite photos published by the US government are in the public domain - what else is there?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I find map24.com, in every european language, with great route selection, zoomable maps, scrolling, and customisation, to be by far the best road map service in europe. Google maps just isn't as easy to use, especially to navigate around countries... the fact that you can just click a box and it zooms down to that box with map24, and then use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom out, makes it the quickest general and specific map out there.
M.
The sat maps also are nice for looking at Washington, DC esp if you have evil intent. I live about 3 miles East of I95 and about 15 mi N of the state capitol here in Va. Their is no detailed sat data much South of DC.
I think google maps are more hype than substance.
for certain cities, but this is the ultimate in driving directions
e vard%2C%20Hollywood%2C%20CA
http://maps.a9.com/?ypLoc=6975%20Hollywood%20Boul
The Google Maps API is worth mentioning as it's where the real power lies - combining two (or more) disparate data sources with a bit of server-side scripting and a bit of JS (although they could make the JS API throw back some better errors if you get it wrong) is an amazing ability. :)
A couple of my own examples: World Airport and Airspace Database and GeoNews - World News with Location Data
I recently missed Mashup Camp due to being in the wrong country at the time, but homefully I'll make the next one
Javascript, PHP, Web 2.0 -- Teh w00t
I personally love each and every thing made by those guys from Google...At the same time as Im so scared because they probably know more of us than ourselves!. ;-)
Said that, can u imagine "google flirt"? should it work as good as everything else made by them, we all would score everynight
We have found a company that has taken local.live.com to the next level, http://atlas.freshlogicstudios.com/ [freshlogicstudios.com]. They have local GAS prices, Movie listings, Traffic and blog listing. Plus they include everything that local.live has.
Exactly... Living in Switzerland Google Earth, or Maps is a toy compared to map.search.ch. For those that live in Switzerland it is absolutely indispensible. You can figure out the latest public transportation schedules, parking lot count, restaurants, etc, etc...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Although they don't do satellite imagery, I find Map24's directions to be much better than anyone else's. I can set waypoints and avoid toll roads, and their 'fly-along'the-route' thingy is excellent. It's Java-based, not AJAX, but I don't think an AJAX app could do the spiffy 3D stuff at all.
-mkb