Virtual Earth, which has been somewhat in the shadow of Google Maps and Earth released a large volume of new images for Live Search Maps for a range of countries and cities around the globe. The imagery allows you to get in very close, so you can see how far your hotel is exactly from […]
Google has added geo-tagged Panoramio photos to StreetView images. According to the Google LatLong Blog it’s done automatically: Google’s image-matching algorithms will analyze them at some point to see if they are also a good match for a Street View location. Google has offered images on Maps for some time, but not directly integrated into StreetView […]
Earlier today Danny blogged the Google Ocean launch event live. It was the “most produced” and Apple-like of the numerous high profile Google announcements I’ve attended — featuring former Vice President Al Gore, singer Jimmy Buffett and several scientific and oceanographic luminaries such as Dr. Sylvia Earle. The crowd was star struck by Gore and […]
Microsoft has added Virtual Earth “Birds Eye” panoramas to Live Search image search results. They appear to be live in the US only right now and around selected points of interest (images below) but they’re very striking. You can pan and zoom and switch from a Birds Eye view to aerial or map views and […]
As Google Maps continues to roll out new features that competing map services don’t have, web users are rewarding it with big gains in traffic. A recent analyst report says Google is the number one maps site in terms of features and usability, and new Hitwise.com traffic data just shared this week with Search Engine […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Microsoft has announced three new enhancements to their mapping solutions with Virtual Earth. The first are new features in Live Search Maps. The second is a new Virtual Earth Web Service and Virtual Earth Map Control 6.2. The third is a new version of Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D and 3DVia.
The Virtual Earth Blog announced that they have released a bulk of new imagery to Virtual Earth and Live Maps. I am not going to list out all the new locations where you can find the new satellite, ortho, and bird’s eye imagery, but here are a few:
The LiveSide Blog reported that Chris Pendleton,Virtual Earth Evangelist, posted the news that Ask.com has now dropped their own mapping product for Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. Virtual Earth can now be found on Ask Maps, Ask City, and within Ask’s search results as Smart Answers. It is a shame to see Ask.com dissolve the mapping service, […]
Google and Microsoft have invested huge sums in their competitive mapping platforms. Yahoo, for its part, opted out of that arms race some time ago. But independent EveryScape is building an interesting alternative platform and destination. Today at the Where 2.0 conference, the company announced upgraded site features and a new “Ambassadors” program that augments […]
According to the Google Earth Blog, Google Earth version 4.3 (free) is coming later today. Among the upgrades and improvements are faster load times for 3D buildings, day/night lighting, new navigational options, and StreetView images. (Google has also just started to let StreetView on to third party sites.)
I just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from Danny, the Search Engine Land team, and myself. I have been tracking the news over the course of the day, and no surprise, it’s pretty slow. So I figured I’d feature some of our recent holiday related posts and end with some select […]
Trying to figure out the impact of last week’s oil spill in San Francisco Bay, which happened after the container ship Cosco Busan hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge? There are maps to the rescue! Links to them below, along with some observations on the difficulty in finding community-built maps like these in Google Maps. […]
Late last month, at its “Searchification” event, Microsoft introduced a wide range of search enhancements and improvements. The company also said there would be additional updates to follow. Those are now rolling out and include feature and content enhancements for maps, local, and mobile services. The biggest news is the introduction of a new voice […]
Gary Price points to a Microsoft Virtual Earth blog posting that reflects enhancements of low level orthogonal “Bird’s Eye” photography within the U.S., as well as satellite mapping for a range of countries and locations outside the U.S. In addition there’s also now more 3-D imagery and more 3-D cities in Virtual Earth.
FlashEarth Mashup with Google Earth 4.2 from the Google Earth Blog reports on a site named Flash Earth that provides mapping services from several providers in a desktop like experience, using Flash technologies. Flash Earth gives you mapping data from Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, OpenLayers and NASA Terra. The Flash map lets […]
Gizmodo, in something of a tongue-in-cheek post, compares the cars and cameras Google is using to capture its StreetView imagery with those being used by Microsoft for what has been known as StreetSide. StreetSide is a Live Local product that predated Google’s StreetView but has been limited to San Francisco and Seattle. What this post […]
Google is bringing mashups behind the enterprise firewall and into the browser. What that means, among other things, is that Google Earth Enterprise users will be able to see data rendered on Google Earth within a browser environment rather than having the Earth client on their individual desktops. Here’s the Google Blog post.
Immersive 3-D mapping site Everyscape, which will formally launch this fall, has announced “The People’s World Project” which seeks to involve the community in voting for the next cities that EveryScape builds out. The company plans to launch with photorealistic, 3-D environments for 10 US metropolitan areas, five of which will be chosen by the […]
AT&T’s YellowPages.com, which was recently named the fastest growing Internet yellow pages site by comScore, has been testing a beta site with a dramatically improved design and user experience. Here’s the new beta site.
When Microsoft debuted Live Search Maps/Virtual Earth in 3-D last November there were many “oohs” and “aahs” but there was also the question: “Where’s New York?” It was not among the original 3-D cities that the Virtual Earth team rolled out. Now that omission has been rectified with the launch this morning of New York […]
InfoNow and Microsoft Virtual Earth have announced a partnership to provide Virtual Earth enhanced mapping on third party websites that use InfoNow’s Location Insight product. Location Insight provides banks, retailers and others with the ability to deliver store location information on their sites, on mobile devices and over the telephone. You can see how it […]
Local search and directory site SuperPages.com has upgraded its mapping functionality, adding a range of sharing and personalization features built on top of the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. SuperPages’ chief online yellow pages competitor, YellowPages.com also uses Virtual Earth.
Australia Day was last week. For the occasion, both Google and Microsoft both planned to do flyovers to snap imagery of the Sydney landscape and actual Sydney residents (Sydneysiders) for the event – ultimately to be used in Google Earth, Google Maps and Microsoft Live Local (Virtual Earth). However, Google’s flyover didn’t work as planned.
Still somewhat ahead of consumer demand, Microsoft continues to build on its commitment to rich satellite and aerial imagery (in addition to 3-D) through its Virtual Earth platform (and Live Local destination). Earlier today Microsoft announced that it will integrate more than 400,000 square miles of U.S. aerial imagery into Virtual Earth, under an agreement […]