Microsoft Debuts Celeb Favorites

If you've ever wondered where tennis star Anna Kournikova likes to get a pedicure when she's in Miami or asked yourself where New York Yankee Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez goes for Italian food in Manhattan, Microsoft has those answers.

The company yesterday launched a promotional Web site ( http://www.celebfavorites.com ) featuring Windows Live Local with an overlay of the favorite restaurants, bakeries, hotels, dance clubs and more from a handful of celebrities' hometowns. The map features "pinpoints" of those locations.

Click on the map for actress Eva Longoria, for example, and you'll see that she loves dining at Mi Tierra Cafe and Bakery, a 24-hour restaurant in San Antonio, and shopping at the River Center Mall.

For now, only a handful of celebrities are featured on the site but Angela Morrow, product manager for Windows Live Local, said the company is in negotiations with several more celebrities and plans to keep the site up for the next month or two to gauge its success in driving traffic to Windows Live Local, a rival to Google Maps.

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Amazon Expands A9 Map Service

A9 has improved its mapping technology called A9 Maps. The service combines maps and driving directions from Mapquest with A9's BlockView feature. BlockView images show photographs of streets and buildings so A9 users can get a better idea of what a restaurant or service looks like. A9 users can also move up and down streets with BlockView as they use the right and left arrows to view photographs of different buildings.

Posted on November 21, 2005
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Personalize Maps With Wayfaring

Wayfaring is a website that allows you to create maps based on Google Maps that are personalized with your own favorite places. You can also look at maps others have created. For example, there is a San Francisco Golfers Map as well as personal maps like Will's map of places where he likes to drink beer and a UCLA student's map of her classes. When you create a map you can place notes and tags on the map and then share it with others when you are done. This page contains a list of some of Wayfayer's features.

Posted on November 16, 2005
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New Yahoo Maps Beta Available

Yahoo has a beta version available for the next upgrade to Yahoo Maps. The new version includes more draggable and zoomable features including a box, called an overview map, that contains a smaller version of the map that can be used to quickly zoom in and out. Yahoo announced the beta in a post on the Yahoo! Search blog. Here are some of the features they noted.

Multi-point driving directions. Get yourself from point A to B and on to C all in one map.

Integrated Yahoo! Local. Includes our local search, a browseable interface, easy access to business ratings, reviews, and events.

The new overview map (in the upper-right hand corner) helps you get your bearings. The little grey box representing your big map is even drag-able. Use it to move around rapidly without losing context.

The beta launch also includes some new APIs for mapping mash-up enthusiasts. These are also described in the blog post mentioned above.

Posted on November 14, 2005
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MSN Launches Virtual Earth

Microsoft has launched MSN Virtual Earth a detailed online satellite mapping service. Like Google Maps, Virtual Earth provides both road maps and aerial photos of the destination being viewed. You can also scroll along the map which is very helpful for someone trying to figure out directions. A "scratch pad" is provided that helps you store some of your previous searches. The service also includes the Virtual Earth URL application programming interface (API) so you can add Virtual Earth maps and local search results to your Web applications.

Posted on July 26, 2005
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Google Plans 3D City Maps

Siliconvalleywatcher.com reports that Google Maps plans to go 3D by using trucks equipped with photographic equipment. The project will include major US cities beginning with San Francisco:

Google plans to use trucks equipped with lasers and digital photographic equipment to create a realistic 3D online version of San Francisco, and eventually other major US cities.

The move would trump Amazon's A9 service, which offers two-dimensional photos of buildings on US city streets.

The trucks would drive along every San Francisco street using the lasers to measure the dimensions of buildings, to create a 3D framework onto which digital photos can be mapped. This would complement the mostly top-down view of San Francisco available through Google's Keyhole satellite photo application.

The online mapping services battle expanded last week when Microsoft announced plans to launch an online satellite mapping service called MSN Virtual Earth later this summer.

Posted on June 9, 2005
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MSN To Launch Virtual Earth This Summer

Microsoft has announced plans to launch MSN Virtual Earth this summer, an online satellite mapping tool that will compete with Google Maps. Search Engine Watch reports that MSN Virtual Earth will offer the following features:

Satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods

Satellite images with street map overlays

Ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants

Posted on June 5, 2005
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