Meanwhile, Back In Redmond… May 30, 2007
Yesterday, Google Maps introduced Street View Maps for 5 major cities (alas, Seattle wasn’t one of them). The implementation of the Street View feature rocks even though the image quality isn’t as good as it could be. Jim and Galen have already blogged about Google’s new release, so I’ll avoid repeating what they’ve already said.
What you may not know, is that Microsoft already had their own version of street level maps of Seattle & San Francisco out for about a year now. It’s yet to make it past the interesting technology demo stage. Regardless, compared with the new Google Maps, the user experience was clunky and Google is now clearly ahead of them in the ground level imagery war. It’ll be very interesting to see if Microsoft fights back on the ground or not (or continues to extend its lead in other areas).
However, what Microsoft lacks in ground forces, it makes up for in air superiority. Satellite imagery has gotten major upgrades. For example, an Aerial view of Carnation used to be old black and white tiles, now MS has color tiles up to the 100 yd zoom level. Meanwhile, Google doesn’t have any Aerial imagery of Carnation any closer than 2000 ft.
Better Aerial photography is nice, but the 3-D arena is where Microsoft is really doing killer stuff. 3-D Seattle in Virtual Earth looks like Seattle. 3-D Seattle in Google Earth, looks like bunch of grey boxes and the Columbia Tower. Along the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty in Virtual Earth looks like the real thing, while in Google Earth you just see Lady Liberty’s shadow and flat photograph. As an added bonus, Virtual Earth has 3-D models of downtown Bellevue and the Redmond/Overlake area (including the Microsoft campus). Put another way, Peter Parker would use Google and Spiderman would use Microsoft.
3-D Seattle in Microsoft Virtual Earth
3-D Seattle in Google Earth
Anyway, I am loving this Google / Microsoft mapping war. Technology hasn’t been this much fun since the browser wars of 10 years ago. It doesn’t matter who wins between Microsoft & Google, because they both have so much engineering talent, vision and money, that this battle may never end. (Wouldn’t that be great for us users)! As I gaze into my crystal ball, here’s what I see….
Thoughts / Predictions:
Google Earth will probably either die or get merged with Google Maps. My experience with Google Earth 4 has been underwhelming compared with the new browser based mapping apps. In the 3-D space, Microsoft is killing Google right now (at least on Windows). Virtual Earth 3-D is cross browser, but not cross platform. It’ll be interesting to see if the Virtual Earth can use Silverlight to help close the gap against the Mac / Linux Google Earth clients or if Google Earth can reclaim some lost ground to Microsoft.
Google Map’s Street View was implemented using Flash (Impressive). If Google can implement Google Earth in the browser via Flash or Java, I’ll be even more impressed.
Virtual Earth Street Level imagery should get better. Remember, part of the Virtual Earth team is former Flight Simulator developers. I’m sure there synergies to be exploited between the VE team and the “Driving Simulator” developers on the Project Gotham Racing / Forza Motorsport teams. Besides, Las Vegas and New York in PGR 3 blow away both Google Maps and MS Virtual Earth right now. Point being, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft catches up to Google in street level mapping (if they ever make a better search engine I’ll be shocked however).
Google’s 2-D maps with building silhouettes and bus routes are currently ahead of Microsoft’s 2-D map renderings. It’ll be interesting to see what minor tweaks and improvements happen next in this area.
Yahoo, despite their best efforts, is looking more and more like MapQuest 2.0. They better do something cool soon, otherwise they’ll fall hopelessly behind Microsoft and Google.
So where do you see the future of mapping going? Can mapping the inside of buildings & homes or real time video be far behind?
Sphere: Related Content- Posted in : General Real Estate
- Author : Robbie
Comments»
I like how Google earth has one building filled in. It’s almost like they’re trying to draw your attention to the fact that the others are all gray!
Yeah, Google Earth’s lack of color & texture does make the Columbia Tower stand out. (So maybe it’s a feature!). Flying around Seattle & Redmond like Superman in Virtual Earth is pretty dang cool.
I really hope Google adds Seattle (and the Eastside ‘burbs) soon because Google Map’s new street view feature is pretty sweet. I had a blast walking around San Francisco, Mountain View & New York yesterday.
I can’t wait to see what MS & Google do for their next act.
Use your imagination about the applications of this technology:
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/