Comment Feed for Channel 9 - Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

scobleizer — Tue, 24 May 2005 07:32:48 GMT

The people you see are:

Steve Lombardi, program manager (guy talking most of the time).
Cody Ebberson, sitting on left side of couch, software design engineer.
Harish Jayanti, software design engineer.
Tom Barclay, researcher

posted by scobleizer

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Steve411 — Tue, 24 May 2005 07:37:09 GMT

Yeeha! Here we go. Virtual Earth is a propper name for it as well.

posted by Steve411

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Tensor — Tue, 24 May 2005 08:46:49 GMT

My favourite result from google maps - go to maps.google.co.uk, zoom in to an area, search for "pub" in tha map area below.

It takes you Pueblo Memorial Airport, Colarado, USA.

Err... I'm not sure thats in my local area...

posted by Tensor

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

leighsword — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:01:00 GMT

cool, all wrote by javascirpt,
'{this.baseURL="http://mt.google.com/mt?";
if(window._tv&&window._tv.length>0)
{this.baseURL+="v="+encodeURIComponent(window._tv)+"&"}}}'
from http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/maps.keyhole.3.js.

but where is china?

posted by leighsword

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Jaz — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:12:18 GMT

cant wait to watch this when i get back home. Now heres a question though.Will this allow me to draw my own routes on it?

posted by Jaz

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Jaz — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:17:29 GMT

Another Question, If you added RSS feeds to areas so that you could see any changes going on i.e a bypass built

posted by Jaz

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

markus — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:19:34 GMT

This is so cool, can't wait till this is launched...

posted by markus

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

scobleizer — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:41:58 GMT

Jaz: I asked that question after the taping is off. Answer? It's on their list.

posted by scobleizer

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Jaz — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:45:03 GMT

which one scoble?

posted by Jaz

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

scobleizer — Tue, 24 May 2005 10:00:44 GMT

Sorry, the RSS question.

As to drawing your own routes, yes, but not sure what you mean by "drawing." I think the route builder will work just like http://mappoint.msn.com works today when showing a route between two points.

posted by scobleizer

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Jaz — Tue, 24 May 2005 10:28:32 GMT

Well my g/f just got a new bike and when she is coming to mine from work theres this nasty roundabout in the way that no one really likes, however there is a route that can get her to mine without using the roundabout, but i assume if you put "town to my house" in whatever map thing it would take the route with the roundabout as that is probably the best route. So i'd alike the ability to draw my own routes without having to use what the computer thinks is the best/fastest route

So basically i'd get a map of the area and be able to draw a red line along the oute that i want and then the map program would make my line nice and neat and scale the map appropiately so that it can fit on a peice of paper or maybe synch it to a PDA and GPS facility.

posted by Jaz

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Carlos Luna — Tue, 24 May 2005 11:19:38 GMT

This, indee, is taking mapping to a much higher level. Keep up the good work guys.

Can't wait to see it all done

posted by Carlos Luna

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

figuerres — Tue, 24 May 2005 12:43:44 GMT

I have to wonder about how this could work with / broow from / overlap with / help build

World WInd -- the NASA free "Virtual Earth" that runs on windows PC's

they both for example use USGS data.

posted by figuerres

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

fatboy_au — Tue, 24 May 2005 13:23:57 GMT

This looks awesome! Great work guys. Cant waul.

posted by fatboy_au

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

eagle — Tue, 24 May 2005 13:25:47 GMT

No credit to the TerraServer?

With Longhorn's 3dUI this is going to be really cool!

posted by eagle

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Minh — Tue, 24 May 2005 13:28:10 GMT

Did you post this to the wrong forum, Scoble? I want to Eagle-Eye zoom on a wheat field in Iowa, is that going to be possible? Also, will VirtualEarth be less of a product & more like a platform? Like what WorldWind can do? It lets 3rd party write add-ons that place things on top of a 3D earth. Will the same be availabe on VirtualEarth?

posted by Minh

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

cwaters — Tue, 24 May 2005 13:50:06 GMT

Whatever happened to TerraServer? Seems like Microsoft had been sitting on that tremendous resource for like 10 years now. Anyway, glad to see it's being utilized with Virtual Earth.

posted by cwaters

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Kosso — Tue, 24 May 2005 14:23:31 GMT

This looks GREAT!! Can't wait for a launch! I've been recently hacking away at that 'other' map service - I hope we can 'do' custom stuff with Virtual Earth too!

Will there be a smaller version of the video up soon? I'd like to share this with some of the guys on the this side of the pond [uk]

cheers!
Kosso

posted by Kosso

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

ScanIAm — Tue, 24 May 2005 14:25:27 GMT

Still downloading the video, but I was wondering if this might push the MSFT stock up in the Google range

posted by ScanIAm

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

chubs — Tue, 24 May 2005 16:28:27 GMT

If you want to get your hands on something similar that doesn't cost a penny (unlike Keyhole) head on over to the Nasa Whirl Wind Project website.

I just downloaded it last night and its very nice. This .net program features 3D terrain, various types of satellite imagery, and you can even watch animated events occur (volcanic eruptions, forest fires, etc.).

posted by chubs

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

CadErik — Tue, 24 May 2005 18:59:37 GMT

That's an excellent interview! Excellent questions!

Erik.

posted by CadErik

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Simo — Tue, 24 May 2005 20:46:23 GMT

looks good. ok understatement - looks really cool. Love the hybrid view.

But that name is going to come back and bite if you don't get 90-95% of your average internet browsers' countries in there.

posted by Simo

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

moofish — Wed, 25 May 2005 00:16:03 GMT

Firstly I'd like to know if it is possible for the map to relay information like 'the parking lot is full, or has “3 spaces left” and then ask if I would like to reserve one via mobile/wireless payment

Also how will local small businesses or groups plug into this map, its all very well that the big guys get a look in but what about art galleries that just set up shop, or voluntary groups that have meetings on such and such a date, even festivals

Does the map change to different modes i.e. spring time the autumn leaves falling off, or evening when the building lights are on and things are dark, celebrations with lights up and what about disasters like freak floods. Can the map be altered for this?

Eagle eye mode seems good, but what about when a new building is made, how will Microsoft incorporate or even become aware of a change in the landscape

My main concern is the emphasis on ‘exploring the environment”, that’s okay for today but many on holiday like to know the history of an area. It would be a shame to have a one size fits all approach that the USA map has at present, as the US does not have much history, history is worth exploring and other countries have much that this kind of web app could exploit

So when these guys get round to doing maps of, well just about every other region of the earth from the EU countries and Russia to the far east with the oriental continents and Arabian Emirates; they all have a lot of history with stories attached to them.

I would like to see a mode called 'history mode' that allows the person exploring to read up on the history of the area they are looking at: e.g. this are used to be grass land (an option alters the model to show how it was) the locals used to work in mills where their produce was exported to such and such country (and have links to other areas of the globe of that period and then show what that industry is today) I can see some kind of tie in with Encarta.

People willing to explore sections of an area would give time to read its history, if a counter was used say (in time machine mode) it would change much of the landscape to grass and trees and then show areas that today sell locally made jams or cheeses, or printing firms that still have links back to that period.

These are my immediate feelings on what the map could mean to me and others, allowing them to follow trails such I did from a book touring round the battle scarred boarders between Scotland and England (UK) where there are many Heritage Trees dating back several hundred and even a thousand or more years. Some thing like this plotted out would be great, I would like to have blogged my experiences and meet other interested in the same things.

P.S. I feel sorry for these guys, they all seem to have big bags under their eyes.

posted by moofish

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

daSmirnov — Wed, 25 May 2005 00:45:01 GMT

Although having different photos for seasons and times etc would be good, that's an awful lot of images to get.

The history idea sounds fantastic.

Shame it could be a while to get UK arial/satellite shots, I think the only lot done have been commerical (and pretty expensive).

posted by daSmirnov

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

dantheman82 — Wed, 25 May 2005 02:42:48 GMT

Very nice stuff! Please give these items some thought as well:
1) Try to have a good print view. I know it's not always easy when you're dealing with AJAX/JS development.
2) If you could add construction data...
3) Also, if there's some type of API that could be available, that would be great!

Thanks,
Dan

posted by dantheman82

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

nate77 — Wed, 25 May 2005 03:40:28 GMT

They said they may be working to get it in Firefox, but it certainly "looked" like an IE-only web app. Also, if it works in Safari, you'll get a lot more early adopters (must cite Doc Searls on that point) But just to restate that Firefox support is essential -- really awesome demo though. Thanks Scoble!

posted by nate77

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Jaz — Wed, 25 May 2005 08:45:05 GMT

I was thinking about intergration and routes.

My dads in chicago, he's staying i dunno at a ramada or something and he wants to goto one of the big malls out of town. SO he has a Dell Axim and makes a route on MSN maps and saves it, it then offers an RSS feed which he can subcribe too. When he subscribes o it, he starts getting information about traffic conditions and other various things so that before he sets off on his adventure he knows that 4th and 8th street just had a glue lorry tip over and it's taking a long time to get cars moving past there, thus the map can offer a new route.

scoble, basically bring a notepad to london meet (a big notepad and lots of Jones Cream Soda)

posted by Jaz

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Tensor — Wed, 25 May 2005 09:45:15 GMT

daSmirnov wrote:

Shame it could be a while to get UK arial/satellite shots, I think the only lot done have been commerical (and pretty expensive).

I think you would be suprised. World wind uses Landsat 7 data which goes down to 1 pixel / 15 metres resolution for the entire surface of the earth. I believe there are arial photographs of the entire UK freely avaible from a top-down perspective to greater res than that. The 45% angle images would be a different issue, but you could not get those for the entire US anyway, and you certainly would not get them all for the entire UK either.

I know it has been mentioned before in this thread but I would urge anyone intrested in this stuff to check out World wind. Its an educational tool rather than a geographical search engine, but it is super cool.

Re the video - the smooth zooming is to me the coolest thing. Thats some amazing Javascript!

posted by Tensor

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

moofish — Wed, 25 May 2005 11:53:33 GMT

How does that 45 angle work, form what nauticle direction is the camera facing. Is it flexible enough to pan 360deg round the building? How could it be justified to capture the best face of one building at the sacrafice of another?

posted by moofish

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Harlequin — Wed, 25 May 2005 14:40:40 GMT

ScanIAm wrote:

Still downloading the video, but I was wondering if this might push the MSFT stock up in the Google range

Microsoft already has been in the "Google range", several times. Then they do a stock split.

posted by Harlequin

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Kristaps Kaupe — Wed, 25 May 2005 19:04:12 GMT

Looks cool! But there are two things that must be there to be useful for me: 1) It must have map of my country (Latvia). 2) It must work with Opera browser (I hope it will, Google Maps works now ).

posted by Kristaps Kaupe

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

intelman — Wed, 25 May 2005 21:45:10 GMT

The alternate browser support is awesome, for other Microsoft sites like www.msn.com doesnt' look as great in firefox as it does in IE. I think that is wonderful that other browsers are supported!

posted by intelman

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

AP1 — Thu, 26 May 2005 05:09:40 GMT

This is good and timely. I am glad to MSFT come back and compete with Google-Keyhole with Virtual Earth. It is also nice to see MapPoint and TerraServer assets combined into this. I am thinking X-BOX, MSFT Flight-SIM, Win-64 applications, true distribution.

With Pictometry, a very hot little company now, the 45 degree angle thing is cool, but it will be hard to compete with Google Earth and Keyhole application for panning and zooming at various angles. The ideal would be a combination of Pictometry and the true-fly-through capabilities of Keyhole - skyline-esque approach.

Search the world. The key difference, on a contrary point, is the price-point. MSN Virtual Earth will be free and Google Earth will be $30.00 for Keyhole client.

Also, note - think about right-click save as, and how to get geospatial intelligence out from system, and packaged, and sent around. Also, think about digital to analog transforms.

Congrats to the MapPoint Team for matching such an impact.

Well done with WSJ by the way - well orchestrated from interview with BIll, pre-hype on Virtual Earth, and then announcement, and pre-release. Interesting to see Barclay involved. I was wondering when he would be involved.

Nice job to Pictometry for getting this win. Huge for them.

posted by AP1

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

nik — Fri, 27 May 2005 08:43:54 GMT

so in other words, Microsoft have been sitting on terraserver for 10 years, and couldnt work out what to do with it until Google released Google maps. I am waiting for innovative web apps, not follow the leader.

posted by nik

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

nik — Fri, 27 May 2005 09:34:55 GMT

ok, i take back some part of that scepticism after seeing the overlay view, as well as the navigation.. these guys have done a good job, I just think it should have been done a lot earlier. Ajax is only new as a term, as a technology is has been around for years..

posted by nik

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Wil — Fri, 27 May 2005 20:36:44 GMT

It should be interesting to see whether users can develop GIS-like client-side apps for Virtual Earth and for the Google Maps / Keyhole product, without having a "real" GIS, by using only AJAX. If that is possible, it must be painful for MS to watch, given that for years now (ever since the Netscape wars) the mantra there has been "Windows good, browser bad". That's why IE has been stagnant, with just one security Band-aid after another applied to it, instead of being completely re-worked, as so many users wanted. The philosophy of MS has been "rich clients" (and hence "rich MS"!) requiring Windows, Active X (or now .NET), etc., not browser-hosted scripts. After all, if your apps run in Firefox, who cares about the OS?

posted by Wil

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

C_W_Flink — Sat, 28 May 2005 14:41:22 GMT

How does it compare with NASA's WorldWind....

WorldWind runs circles around Keyhole viewer (Google) on my desktop....

I especially like the ability to switch instantly between photo and topological maps.... I can see a terrain item I'm interested in and then switch (if I'm looking at the US) to a USGS map with roads, navigational aids (if in coastal waters, etc.)

Extremely responsive with 3D graphics support... dog on old systems with limited graphics accellerators.

posted by C_W_Flink

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

dantheman82 — Sat, 28 May 2005 17:50:05 GMT

nik wrote:

ok, i take back some part of that scepticism after seeing the overlay view, as well as the navigation.. these guys have done a good job, I just think it should have been done a lot earlier. Ajax is only new as a term, as a technology is has been around for years..

Do keep in mind that Microsoft has excelled at working on the OS and on-built APIs that enable a whole bunch of developers to exercise their creativity in many different directions. By the way, Google Maps would not have been nearly as cool without XMLHTTP, which first appeared in IE 5+ and was coopted by Mozilla and put inside Firefox. The AJAX technology is in fact quite simple in ASP.NET, as has been demonstrated here:
http://www.objectgraph.com/dictionary/how.html

Google really has it easy, when they can simply customize a Linux distro (for them, OSS == free capital upon which to innovate) for their thousands of servers. And then they can build on top of the XMLHTTP framework that MS has put out years ago. And these "amazing" projects are simply some guy's 20% time contribution that percolated to the top. But they definitely ramp up the expectation with regard to simplicity and performance, which is a good thing for everyone.

posted by dantheman82

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

rrakka — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 16:04:55 GMT

This work is really great and creative.
I have some suggestions, i dont know if this has been thought of.

I may not be a full time user of mappoint/streetsand trips sw, as i may wish to go out on weekends only. so ideally speaking i may end up using the sw i buy for what about 60 days an year.

If i'm a web user for suppose mappoint and not bought the mappoint sw, i should be able to zoom in and save the maps into my laptop as jpeg images so that i can use them offline.

posted by rrakka

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

moofish — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 18:43:31 GMT

I was just reading this news about Network conjestion information built into Google's map. I this this is great, I would like to see plug-ins so that if I wanted to see all of the wireless networks available then I could install the plugin and voila! I am especially interested in the history side of countrys and its regions, this would also be an excellent plug-in to have.

Also my last question still stands:

"How does that 45 angle work, form what nauticle direction is the camera facing. Is it flexible enough to pan 360deg round the building? How could it be justified to capture the best face of one building at the sacrafice of another?"

Can anyone help?

Samuel

posted by moofish

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

mVPstar — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 14:11:26 GMT

You hear that MS! Do this and you'll make Beer28 happy.

mVPstar

posted by mVPstar

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

yyy — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:25:52 GMT

This service is said to be launched in early July and it's already the middle of that month - has it already been launched? Is it open for public testing? If yes, can somebody post a link to the service?

posted by yyy

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

guercheLE — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:27:40 GMT

I have been visiting http://www.virtualearth.com everyday, but it hasn't taken off so far. Does somebody out there might give me a clue on Virtual Earth's due date? Shouldn't this information be on Virtual Earth's web site?

posted by guercheLE

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

yyy — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 19:02:01 GMT

Wow, thanks - I couldn't find this site in Google. I guess there's still no official due date. And I thought it'll be avilable for testing already...

posted by yyy

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

scobleizer — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 07:36:36 GMT

yyy: I talked with the Virtual Earth team today. Soon, soon. As soon as it's up, I'll post something on the home page of Channel 9.

posted by scobleizer

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

yyy — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:22:07 GMT

Great Thanks a lot !

posted by yyy

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Adenocard — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 01:57:25 GMT

VIRTUAL EARTH MUST INCLUDE ALL SIGHTS WHERE CHANNEL 9 GUY HAS BEEN SPOTTED OR PHOTOGRAPHED BEFORE GOING LIVE. (I think the little guy is gonna be on the space shuttle soon, so these guys better get live yesterday... )

posted by Adenocard

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

drylight — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:09:01 GMT

Is this ever going to work with Safari? At the moment it doesn't work. It's slow, contains errors and what does work is unresponsive. All this is seriously hyped and it doesn't even work. Check out the following site on how to do something that works across most browsers and operating systems: http://maps.google.com/ Seriously, if MS are going to release public items like this on to the internet, maybe there should be a sub-domain on the internet where MS/IE only stuff can be found. Other agnostic and standard friendly web sites can live in the rest of the web.

posted by drylight

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Nata1 — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 19:01:39 GMT

Its here!

It works great in firefox, but I doubt safari integration is done yet

posted by Nata1

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

Charles.H.White — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 01:03:14 GMT

So far, I have found that Virtual Earth works well in Mozilla Firefox Version 1.0.2 running on my Mandrake Linux LE 10.2 box.

I tried it on Konqueror and it crashed.

Internet Explorer on Windows XP worked without any software issues but it sure is slow. I noticed the tiles not loading as I was zooming in or panning. It was pretty annoying to tell you the truth.

Google Maps can drill in a bit further than Virtual Earth can. Once you get to a certain point (below 150 yards) I get a picture of a camera with a slash through it indicating that I have zoomed to far. Google will let you zoom in as far as you can and still display images albeit blurry.

I don't think Microsoft has quite done it yet in terms of beating Google. I think they are definitely in the neighborhood though, but the UI is a tad clunky. Google is much simpler to use.

I am also a subscriber to Google Earth so I can tell you with pretty good accuracy that it is far more superior than Virtual Earth. Microsoft might want to consider that rich client after all if they intend to compete. Also, why bother with such limited data? Get the whole friggin world out there already. They bragged about the fact that they have been working with cartography for 10+ years but they come out with the US only? Someone is asleep at the wheel.

My main complaint right now is the clunky UI and the speed. did anyone notice that there is a limit on the scratch pad? I got an error saying that I had reached my maximum number of scratch pad entries. I think I only had 4 or 5. Anyone hear of a scroll bar? lol

Microsoft has done a pretty good job of reverse engineering what Google has done but they are not there yet. I say give it 6 months to a year before we see significant improvements. I hope to see those other features talked about in the taped interview soon.

posted by Charles.H.White

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

just4ugirl — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:29:36 GMT

Ah ha," Virtual Earth" is so wonderful!

posted by just4ugirl

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

pimpinurmoma — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:32:29 GMT

hi there

posted by pimpinurmoma

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

pimpinurmoma — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:33:16 GMT

i pimp ur (I need to watch my language) last night

posted by pimpinurmoma

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

GISboy — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 02:45:16 GMT

well MSN acquired GeoTango on Christmas eve. GeoTango was owned by my GIS prof , Vincent Tao - a brilliant prof and entrepreneur. GeoTango had many patent algo like :

SilverEye, allows the rapid creation of 3D urban models from a single image.

Smart Digitizer is essentially a stand-alone tool for building GIS features: roads, rivers, hydrants, etc.

GlobeView has the ability to access data from a number of sources including servers supporting the Web Map Service Specification (WMS) from the Open Geospatial Consortium and Microsoft's own TerraServer.

So there is some competition with Google Earth in future.

As for my Prof, he is on leave (sabbastical) & having good vacation somewhere out there.

posted by GISboy

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

jiggy — Fri, 12 May 2006 17:28:44 GMT

Do you think Microsoft virtual earth will ever be able to compete with Google's service?

Especially with them both being huge companies, and am I correct to assume Google has had more time to allow for growth than Microsoft!?

posted by jiggy

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

AdamWhite81 — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 23:42:04 GMT

hi cool

posted by AdamWhite81

Re: Virtual Earth: MSN's answer to Google Maps

KittyNull — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:16:56 GMT

Steve Lombardi is so hot, I want to call him Poodle and pet him somewhere low.

posted by KittyNull