Microsoft's New Mapping Site With Aerials And "bird's Eye Views"

[+aharris]

DISCLAIMER: I'm not affiliated with, nor will I receive any benefit from this.

 

I've been watching to see if this popped in the forums, and haven't seen it yet. Microsoft is re-tooling some of it's web presence to try to compete better with Google, Yahoo, and others. The part of these new efforts I'm interested is the Live Local mapping service.

 

It's pretty similar to Google's maps but it has a twist for some areas. Especially for the areas with the bird's eye view available it has been very helpful to me in determining the terrain of the caches I'm going after. For example, Type Zero (GCTYP0) is a multi cache with the first stage in a unique spot. Using the bird's eye view, I knew exactly what I was going to run into for that stage.

 

The downside is it does not allow you to search for locations using the coordinates from the cache page. However, it still is in a beta version, so it's possible they could add that functionality later. In any event, it has been pretty helpful to me in my area (DC/No. VA). However, when you get to areas without the most detailed aerial photos or sans the Bird's Eye View, it's about the same level of detail as GoogleEarth.

 

Clearly, the KML functionality with GoogleEarth gives it the decisive edge in usefulness for cachers. Still, I've found it to be a useful second reference at times.

 

Anyways, it's anotehr tool in the toolbox for cachers. Maybe if we send enough comments into them during the beta, they can add the search by coordinates functionality.

[+Dragonfire870]

Just so you know, that service is bad right now, because some of the satellite images are really old, in some cases more than 10 years old. (I know this because a local high school's pool, pool parking lot, and softball field aren't there, and they hadn't even begun construction!)

[+aharris]

Just so you know, that service is bad right now, because some of the satellite images are really old, in some cases more than 10 years old. (I know this because a local high school's pool, pool parking lot, and softball field aren't there, and they hadn't even begun construction!)

 

It seems like it depends on the area you're viewing for the age of the images. When I looked at our house, I was able to determine they were only about a year old. Again, the most useful part for me has been the bird's eye view function for my area. Thanks for pointing out the age for your area, though.

[+The Leprechauns]

The Map Point link on every cache page takes me to the new Windows Live Local site if I am using Internet Explorer, but the link is "stuck" on the lame old Map Point site if I am using Firefox. What's up with that?

 

As for usefulness, since Windows Live Local changes over to Terraserver imagery outside of urban areas, it is more helpful in those areas than Google Earth, which shows nothing but green and brown blobs at close zoom range.

[+plook]

Interesting but I didn't find it particularly useful. Doesn't seem to have LAT/LON data accessible from the interface, even if you add a pushpin. With Google Maps I can double-click anywhere to recenter and then parse the LAT/LON data from the link URL provided.