Microsoft releases Virtual Earth

[hulkster]

Looks like Microsoft has responded to http://maps.google.com/ with http://virtualearth.msn.com/ - pretty darn nifty interface that is lightening fast (so far) and even appears to work seemlessly in Firefox.

The satellite photos (http://www.komar.org/faq/satellite_photo/) of my Colorado house are from the drought year of 2002 when my grass didn't grow too much. (http://www.watching-grass-grow.com/) This stuff is so cool and just fun to play with - still amazes me what we can do at our fingertips.

[Randall]

Site isn't responding. :hrmm:

While we wait for them to sort things out, Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) has a new hybrid mode, with maps overlaid on the satellite view. Might be a response to Virtual Earth, which (so I am told) has a similar feature... The satellite photos (http://www.komar.org/faq/satellite_photo/) of my Colorado house (Psst -- there's an extraneous quotemark in your link.)

Your house looks pretty small from here. :wink:

Randall

[Wassercrats]

Might be a response to Virtual Earth, which (so I am told) has a similar featureYes, I saw it, and Google's too. It worked for me yesterday. I see my building much clearer than with Google's satellite photo, but I've seen it at that resolution before. I don't remember where.

[hulkster]

Extra quote fixed - thanx randell

Yea, VE is now dead in the water - Google seems to have the scalability game figured out a bit more - DOOPPP for Microsoft.

[Randall]

An article at Ars Technica suggested that the official launch isn't until Monday, and I found this on a third-party developer site (http://www.viavirtualearth.com): The Virtual Earth home page was up and running for a few hours today. I expect the development team is nearly ready to go live. I don't think they were expecting us today. :wink:

Randall

[Andilinks]

Google Maps has a new hybrid mode,This is perfect for someone like me who has only been in the area four months and hasn't ventured too far off the main thoroughfares, routes between malls etc... This really fills in the dark areas and orients. Thanks.

I've been trying virtualearth all day, with no success like everyone else.

Andi

[Randall]

It's working now. Feels a bit clunky compared to Google Maps -- some of the tiles don't load, and the zoom slider doesn't work very well.

They do have better satellite imagery for Connecticut, but it's black & white, not terribly sharp, and many years old. Same for New York City, which is conspicuously pre-9/11. They picked a bad time of day to photograph it; really hard to make things out because of the shadows.

MSN has the same Orlando satellite imagery as Google, but you can zoom in a lot closer on the Data Center (http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=28.534661%7C-81.380189&style=h&lvl=19&v=1). In Disney World (http://virtualearth.msn.com/default.aspx?cp=28.418868%7C-81.581199&style=h&lvl=19&v=1) you can spot individual people by their shadows. Cool.

Can't zoom in Hawaii at all. I guess they don't consider it a real state...

Randall

[Daytripper_MI6]

The images from the Virtual Earth showing my neighborhood are from at least Before 1993 :umm: You would think they would have something a little more current.

[Randall]

Can't zoom in on Alaska, either -- not even Anchorage. Mandi ain't gonna like that.

Google does Anchorage in all its full-color, high-res glory. :yeah: No satellite view of Kodiak, but at least you can get a street map -- more than you can say for MSN.

Randall

[Vairkjosa]

:eeww: They were off by a quarter mile. I don't know who did their overlays. They suck.

At least Google was on the right street.

:eeww:

[Arthur]

You can't zoom in on Apple's headquarters (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/msn_earth_deletes_aple/) either :confuz:

Arthur

[Randall]

You can't zoom in on Apple's headquarters (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/msn_earth_deletes_aple/) either The Cupertino images must be at least 10 years old, since I can find references to One Infinite Loop as far back as 1995.

OTOH, Microsoft is planning to incorporate images from Pictometry (http://www.pictometry.com) into VE. That could be a killer feature.

Randall

[kitchin]

I found dragging hard to use, compard to Google. I am using a non-Microsoft browser...

[Randall]

Dragging has been working for me. The frequent missing tiles kind of detract from the experience, but otherwise it seems OK.

Watch out for the compass doohickey, though. When you mouse over it, VE goes into autoscroll mode -- and you have to click on the map to stop it.

So far I haven't noticed any browser-specific bugs at all. Everytime I find a problem in Firefox, I immediately test it with IE6. I haven't seen any improvement. :dunno:

Randall

[Mandi]

You can't zoom in on Apple's headquarters (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/msn_earth_deletes_aple/) either :confuz:

Arthur
Maybe it's just unplottable (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/spells_u.html#Unplottable).

[Randall]

Maybe it's just unplottable (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/spells_u.html#Unplottable). Come to think of it, people seem to be forgetting about the famous Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field.

Turns out that the imagery they're using dates back to 1991 (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68308,00.html). No wonder the streets don't line up right in Virtual Earth -- the Real Earth(tm) must have wobbled quite a bit since then. :rasberry:

Randall

[Mandi]

Some of the wobble is pretty recent (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1418302,00.html), in fact - but still, that's pretty old data in terms of looking at developed property.

We'll stick with Google Earth for now, thanks.