At the end of last October (2007), Microsoft beefed up its German-edition of its local search service Live Search Maps, which we reported. Recently they have been at it again with a further overhaul, including a new navigations system.

Toni Pelg, Business Manager at Microsoft, referred to this in its Windows Live Blog. The Search section, previously found at the top in the middle, has now slid to the left, and the fields for “Was” [‘What’] and “Wo” [‘Where’] are no longer below, but rather alongside each other. In addition the user can now specifically search according to Company/Enterprise or locality. The links to web, images and news search have now all disappeared.

The links to Route Planning and other options, previously directly above the map view, are now integrated into the new menu bar. As Pelg reported, this allows for better overview, and as a result the map view is therefore noticeably larger than previously – herewith is the Route Planner much easier to locate.

In the Bird’s Eye View [“Vogelperspektive”], one can adjust the views in each of the compass directions, or using the two new arrows, found under the Zoom function.

The Mini-Map is still to be found. This is particularly useful when using the Bird’s Eye View, though since this update, it is somewhat hidden behind the arrow symbol in the right-hand top corner of the map and aerial views. With a click, once can open or close these views.

Things have not only changed in the “visible area”, according to Pelg. Along with the new interface, the performance of the service has been radically improved. The map and search results load noticeably faster (cf. Pelg). These latter results are generated using the local search machine suchen.de, provided by t-info.