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Microsoft Trumps Google Earth

Mambo [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, November 7, 2006
17 years ago8,378 views

Woh. Now this is one Windows Live product with potential...

It's like Google Eatth, but completely rendered in 3-D, and from within your web browser.

It would be better if there weren't like two places made in the 3D, but perhaps they'll do it all one day soon.

http://maps.live.com/

Haochi [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I was about to post it! Geez.
You will need IE to use it.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

They have 15 citiies with 3d rendering. Secondly, maps.Live.this is a strong contender againt GEarthv4.0.

But then again, they are slicing their own throats, because it only works with IE6/7 .. Most of the innovations on GEarth are the geeks who Hack up new stuff.. how many of them use IE at all?? – so within this space.. there will be less meshups in occurance.. thus MSFT are still losing the battle!!

or [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Obviously google will have this in a short time, plus allow developers to do their own 3d mashups with sketchup. I think ms is really trying to surpass, but google has all the right pieces in place already.

zmarties [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Despite its huge power, Google Earth runs on comparatively modest hardware – using either DirectX or OpenGL as appropriate.

Virtual Earth 3D on the other hand only runs on high spec gaming type hardware – most business grade PCs (with perfectly adequate onboard video) are simply unable to run the code. Even Flight Simulator, hardly a undemanding application, can run on much lower spec machines than Virtual Earth 3D.

Andrew Hitchcock [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Screenshots for those of us fortunate enough to not use Windows? :)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Not only is it browser-specific, it also requires a slow download/ installation of a browser component (and the signing of a license agreement). I even got this funny message on one of the download dialogs: "The installation is taking longer than expected". I finally cancelled because it started installing additional stuff I didn't want to install at this time...

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Philipp, are they pushing some crap out at the same time of the download ??

What do you mean "started installing additional stuff I didn't want to install at this time..." – most of time the install ask you if you want std install or choice of the modules ..just tick it off for install..

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Well, I clicked accept accept accept at first to get done with it but some minutes later, it said "The installation is taking longer than expected" and then it started to download .NET 2.0. I mean I don't have anything against .NET 2.0, and maybe I even accepted it in the beginning (whoever reads the EULA?), I just didn't expect this to take so long or install so many different things, so I cancelled (which stalled the setup instead of ending it, so I had to kill the whole process, and I guess I'm now left with a half-finished setup on IE7).

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Philipp: Thanks for the clarifications

Yes EULA are an issue... ...so just one component (maps.live) maybe an indicator of what is may (exactly!!) going to happen at the Jan /07 timeline ..even with vista?

Inferno [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Well anyway there effort to make something Google competitive is successful but too bad it won't work in FF which actually matters...

Kevin [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Too bad it doesn't work for me.

Though I hate to see Google lose this one, I guess competition forces innovation.

Josue R. [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Yes, M$ looks to have something up its sleeve with this one but how long until the big "G" unveils their web version.

Don't you ever wonder if there are corporate spies just getting a sneak peek of future products and their sending the preview back to their bosses only to find that a contender somehow "got the same idea" and now rushes to launch and patent the idea. I bet Google, M$, Ask, and every big corp has a mole in their own company = p

I like Virtual Earth, i've always enojoyed the nice interface and extra features. Does anyone know how certain flying 3D billboard-ads got into this newly launched web-app? see link below..
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=37.785293~-122.402881&style=h&lvl=19&tilt=-15.2375102940225&dir=0.130172511493324&alt=130.778447841294&scene=1203369

Wouter Schut [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I hate desktop applications which pretend to be web-based.

And coverage of Google earth is sublime, i don't think anyone is going to trump that anytime soon.

Wouter Schut [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

After numerous warnings and dialogs I get this:

"Virtual Earth 3D (beta) currently doesn't support your region or language . Thanks for your patience."

That's kind of like trying to trump the iPod with the Zune without releasing it world-wide. ;)

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Oh my! First I had to download two installers just so that the two ActiveX components could install. Then it tried to make me add shortcut icons to Windows Live Search to my desktop and change my default search engine. And then it tried to convince me to download a Windows Live Local plugin for Outlook – all of which were checked by default, of course.

JUST GIVE ME THE GODDAMN SOFTWARE I WANTED AND NOTHING ELSE!!!

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Sorry, I should've finished the install before posting that last message so that I could've added this: It's now using 150MB of virtual memory and has hung my browser. How wonderful.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

<< Screenshots for those of us fortunate enough to not use Windows? :) >>

Prepare to be underwhelmed!

Millennium Wheel (with typo corrected):
http://tonyruscoe.googlepages.com/microsoft-virtual-earth-3d-millennium-wheel.jpg

Tower of London:
http://tonyruscoe.googlepages.com/microsoft-virtual-earth-3d-tower-of-london.jpg

Eytan Buchman [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

It looks pretty...but how is 3d rendering of a city going to help me? I remember reading about a map company mapping streets from eye level, so that you could see what things would actually look like while driving. That's an innovation I wouldn't mind seeing.

Mambo [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

You call that pretty?!

I could make that in Sketchup using photo layers and a bit of dragging in about 15 minutes.

Google have nothing to worry about. Google Earth is one of the most used Google products, apart from their searches.

Wouter Schut [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Very low on the polygon-count and no functionality which isn't available in Google earth.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Thanks Tony for suffering thru the installation and posting the screenshots :)

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

No problem. I've calmed down a bit now! ;-)

Wouter Schut said:

>> I hate desktop applications which pretend to be web-based.

Agreed. And to be honest, MS would probably get much less grief if they released it as a stand alone Windows application rather than saying it's IE only.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I guess their hope is that some mainstream news sources will show these cool screenshots and say this is what Microsoft does on the web in comparison to Google Maps.

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