Posts Tagged ‘Live Search Maps’
Bing Maps – Update bringt neue Bilder
16 Jun. 2009 | Author: AWo |
Microsoft hat seine lokale Suche Bing Maps– ehemals Live Search Maps – mit jeder Menge neuer Luftaufnahmen aus aller Welt ausgestattet.
Wie Business Manager Toni Pelg im Windows Live Blog verkündet, hat man dabei neue Fotos von über einer Million Quadratmetern der Erdoberfläche hinzugefügt. Dabei wurden viele Regionen berücksichtigt, die bisher noch gar nicht mit Luftbildern vertreten waren – unter anderem große Teile Indiens, Chinas und Afrikas.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features | 
Tags: Bing, Bing Maps, Live Search Maps, Luftaufnahmen, Luftbilder, Microsoft, Local Search | 
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Live Search Maps with 3D mode
The German-language version of Microsoft’s local search Live Search Maps introduces several new features, matching similar capabilities in the US-edition (see earlier post).
Microsoft Business Manager Toni Pelg explained the new functionality in the Windows Live blog.
Users can now view the maps in 3D mode. The link to this view is found in the upper left menu in Map View. Alongside aerial and bird’s eye views, streets and labels are also available here in either 2D or 3D versions. Before being able to use 3D Mode, one needs to have installed Microsoft’s online globe program Virtual 3D (only available for Windows). If not preinstalled, one is prompted to do so at the first attempt to view in 3D mode. Once installed, the user is able to navigate through the virtual landscape per mouse-click. Particularly impressive is that the current weather conditions are displayed in the virtual landscape, though approximately 15 minutes behind the actual conditions, said Pelg.
Further, aerial view now offer two additional zoom levels. For locations where bird’s eye views are already available, once the maximum zoom level is reached, the angled aerial views are loaded to add detail.
However Microsoft hasn’t merely pepped up the map views, but has also redesigned the navigation setup of its local search service. For example, the Route Planner is now also available at the start via the search entry page, and users who want to switch to other Country/Language editions (previously somewhat clumsy) can simply change this on the right side of the header. New too, is the so-called MSN Search Agent. This appears after a local search, below the search results. Pelg said that this new feature provides an overall view of information at the location, such as maps, links, images, news and weather.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: 3D, 3D-Modus, Bird's Eye View, dreidimensional, Live Search Maps, lokale Informationen, lokale Suchmaschine, Microsoft, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Toni Pelg, Vogelperspektive, Local Search |
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Live Search Maps now with 360º views
The US-edition of Live Search Maps is now offering its users panorama and 3D-views, of cities, street views or buildings.
Microsoft has equipped its local search service with the Web2.0 photo tool Photosynth, with which users can assemble three-dimensional views using a collage of ‘normal’ photos. Whoever uploads photos with location-details, will facilitate these images being searchable through Live Search Maps. This recent addition was announced by Microsoft employee Chris Pendleton in his blog.
Find thing the new feature is however like a needle in a haystack – it is found after a search, in the left hand menu, under ‘Explore Collections/Show/Photosynth (per link or icon). Once discovered, a list appears showing all available Photosynth images – the geo-locations of which are displayed on the map. As these images are not embedded in Live Search Maps, users must have the Photosynth software installed on their computers. (Note, at the time of writing, the software was only available for the Windows platform).
Although this application is at present only accessible through the English-language edition of Live Search Maps, one is able to access various locations in other countries, including some in Germany, via this version of LSM.
Live Search Maps: Update brings improvements
Almost exactly a year ago Microsoft launched the local search service Live Search Maps, in cooperation with suchen.de (see our post). In the interim, much has happened, and recently there has been a further update.
New on the scene is the “Collections” feature – as explained by Microsoft business manager Toni Pelg in Windows Live Blog – which is a collection of interesting locations, including attractions, parks or good restaurants. These Collections are accessible either through the “Collections” link or via the menu item “Erkunden Sie die Welt” [en=discover the world] which is visible on the start page of any map view, as long as one has zoomed in sufficiently. On clicking, a results links list appears alongside the map view, gathered from various websites, and can be sorted and displayed according to distance, relevance or date. Simultaneously, these external links are localized on the maps view with icons which one can open per mouse-over.
In a press release, Microsoft details that these Collections are gathered from users the world over. This is noticeable as entries are displayed in all possible languages, which is actually not always helpful, unless one is a languages wiz! Contrary to what Microsoft says, the contents is not exclusively generated by other users (UGC) but obvious exceptions that we discovered included data from tagesschau.de. Something else we noticed is that when we clicked on “More Info” [de=Mehr Info] where the user should be taken to ‘external sources with additional information’, we frequently landed on an empty page devoid of search results – merely a further map view. And often one finds a page with multiple copies of the same link. All in all this new feature seems still half baked.
More practical are some of the other improvements on Live Search Maps. The user can now display labels in Bird’s Eye/Aerial view, including street names, building notations etc., which certainly aids navigation. And the Pedestrian-Feature [de=Fußweg] works well -using this one can calculate foot routes up to 30km. Live Search Maps takes into account many paths through parks and green zones. Also access to local companies has been improved, that is local search results lists now often include detailed information such as opening times. The user can also call the listing gratis, as well as import contact details with a few mouse clicks directly into mail programs accepting vcards [Windows = Outlook; Mac = Entourage or Mail].
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: Live Search Maps, lokale Informationen, Microsoft, suchen.de, t-info |
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Live Search Maps: new bird’s eye view photos
Microsoft has further expanded the German-version of its local search presence Live Search Maps, by adding many new “Bird’s Eye” views.
As referred to by Tony Pelg, Business Manager at Microsoft, in a posting in the Windows Live Blog, for the first time there are high resolution oblique views available for the Ruhr-area, including for Bottrop, Dinslaken, Dorsten, Duisburg, Essen, Gladbeck, Marl, Moers and Wesel. Newly included is also Duusseldorf, and also new pix of Berlin. The capital city was already viewable from above in this web-presence, as of the launch of the service in August 2007 (see our post).
Well-timed for the coming vacation period, Pelg also mentioned Microsoft’s numerous aerial views of best-loved vacation destinations and cities outside of Germany – such as Sydney (Australia), Calgary, Montreal and Toronto (Canada) or Las Palmas, Telde and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain). Areas and cities in the USA, Greece, Great Britain and the netherlands have also been added, and can all be viewed in the new high-res versions online.
Live Search Maps: New RoutePlanner functionality
Recently the German edition of the Microsoft local search service, Live Search Maps, allows direct access to route planning from the map view.
Toni Pelg, a Business Manager at Microsoft, detailed this development in the Windows Live Blog.
To activate the Route Planner from within the maps, one uses a right-click (Control+click for Mac) with the mouse, on the desired start location on the map, and then selects in the resulting Pop-up menu “Route from…” [de=Route von]. At this point, the Route Planner opens within the browser window, with the selected location registering automatically as the start point. The destination is selected similarly. Alternatively, one is able to manually enter the destination in the Destination field. After clicking the “RoutePlan” button, the desired routing is generated.
This new feature also functions in all view types – map, aerial, hybrid and “bird’s eye view.”
Live Search Maps: another update
The German-version of the local search engine Live Search Maps, operated by Microsoft, has recently been pepped up with several improvements.
These new features are described by Toni Pelg, a Business Manager at Microsoft, in a post on Windows Live Blog.
The search results – generated by suchen.de – are now sorted according to the distance from the entered location. Additionally, duplicate results have been reduced significantly. These measures should increase the search speed and the overview clarity.
Not only the search performance has been improved, but also the content has been updated and tweaked. Users are now able to find more German towns and cities, using the Bird’s Eye view [de=Vogelperspektive). Pelg listed the newly updated locations as including Düsseldorf, Essen, Koblenz, Neuwied, Neuss, Detmold, Gütersloh, Gummersbach, Nordhorn and Paderborn.
The most extensive improvements concern the Route Planner. One can now link directly to this page, and use the facility without entering start and finish locations, according to Pelg. This allows the Route Planner results to be added to bookmarks/favorites. Website operators are now also able to embed the results in their web pages. Further it is also possible to print out the generated route plan, by selecting the printer icon (in the menu bar, on the right) and then decide whether to choose the instructions in Text form, Map form or both of these for the printed output.
