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Virtual Earth 3D Beta Launched
Lord Satri writes "Microsoft has announced the launch of Virtual Earth 3D. There are numerous screenshots to be seen, as well as a Google Earth comparison from Spatially Adjusted. You can read the Google Earth Blog on why he thinks it's not a threat to Google. C|Net's coverage and the official press release provide lots of concrete details of the product. You can also read more from the development side or see the CBS report on Virtual Earth 3D. My main gripe: Windows and Internet Explorer 6/7 only. From the official press release: 'When people visit Live Search, type a query into the search box and click the "Maps" tab, they get their search results in a map context that offers the option to explore the area using two-dimensional views (aerial and bird's-eye) or three dimensional models with Virtual Earth 3D. This new technology compiles photographic images of cities and terrain to generate textured, photorealistic 3-D models with engineering level accuracy.'"
The hello world link didn't even function properly when I tried running it, and that is on the supported platform: IE 6 running on Windows XP.
It also looks like it uses an Active X control which, needless to say -- this isn't a real web app at all. Google could have embedded Earth into an Active X control and made a 'web app' better than this with existing code, and supported more than the Microsoft version which only has 15 U.S. cities.
I am not even going to bother trying it on a real OS/browser after I leave work.
It only works with IE 6 or 7.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.