Suspected PayPal Hackers Seek Deal To Stay Out Of Prison
2 Men Arrested After Teen Was Run Over For His iPad
Microsoft Live Maps gets close up
Above are screenshots of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. In both cases, we zoomed in as far as we could using Microsoft Live Maps or Google Maps. Not only is the aerial imagery zoomed in a bit tighter with Microsoft Live Maps, but the picture is a lot sharper. And of course, since the picture is at an angle, it's much easier to identify landmarks, which is one of the only real practical uses of an aerial view when you're looking for directions.
Google Maps still seems to load a bit smoother as you scroll throughout the map. But the upgrade makes Live Maps a bit more fun to play around with.
Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsDoug S.Mar 30th 2007 4:34PM
Way cool! Like it says above...doesn't work everywhere, but where it does, it's lots of fun!
Andrew FongMar 30th 2007 5:01PM
The angled view is definitely a huge plus. The street addresses are almost always off a little on both Live and Google, so the angled view is great for identifying particular buildings.
mikelMar 30th 2007 9:57PM
yeah, with Google maps I still haven't found an address that hasn't had an aerial photo. the second one I tried on live had no aerial photo. way to stay behind the curve M$!!
RPMar 31st 2007 7:15AM
I thought I saw a Microsoft airplane flying over my city last month. :-)
The Live stuff looks cool, but the last time I installed it, the install process was brutally painful. Did they improve it yet? A techie may suffer thru it, but definitely not your average user.
JackApr 1st 2007 7:46AM
3.8 terabytes and my town's still in black and white.
No thanks, I'll stick with Google.
tevetorbesApr 1st 2007 6:57PM
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain (from past articles re: 21+ zoom on Google Maps) that the most extreme close-ups are from airplane flyovers. The one that comes to mind is of the guy looking up somewhere in the African desert: that one was for a National Geographic something-or-other.
So no, we don't need our tinfoil hats because Google and MSN are not using some supersecret ultra-precise spy satellite.
Yet...
mrbs landscapeApr 5th 2007 9:32PM
cool
VApr 13th 2007 9:46AM
The Images are from Satellites. If you didn't know we have hundreds of satellites in our space area reading information from Planet Temperature to Planet activity!
JoeyApr 19th 2007 4:00PM
If the aerial view is detailed enough to show boobs of naked women on a beach then that determines the winner for me.
LWillApr 24th 2007 9:59AM
Wow..I was left speechless for a moment when I saw how sharp the image was on the screenshot for Live Maps. It's true that the clarity of one the pictures spoke a thousand words to me that I found it unnecessary to read further to determine which was the better one. I did, subsequently, read on. However, I think it's still worth to try or stick on with Microsoft Live Maps for a little longer to see what other improvements they will bring on in the future.
Brett CookMay 31st 2007 2:24PM
Which is better is now a moot point, since the Live Maps system now shows the same images as Google Earth.
Two days ago, I was able to see close-up views of my house that were fairly recent. Today, I see the same view as I get with Google Earth, which is about 5yrs old. I can tell because of the presence of a van which we sold back then, and the absense of a garage, which we built since then.
john mcgiffenJun 24th 2007 9:00AM
very good
HieuJun 25th 2007 8:10AM
Cool