Features
Street Maps: Users can browse and search topographically-shaded street maps for many cities worldwide. Maps include certain points of interest built-in, such as metro stations, stadiums, hospitals, and other facilities. It is also possible to browse public user-created points of interest. Search can cover public collections, businesses or types of business, locations, or people.
For some countries, like South Africa, and South Korea, Live Search Maps has data on highways and some arterial roads, but lacks local streets or alleys. There is also detailed map data available for several global cities in developing countries like Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, and Mexico City. However, for such cities, the detail of the map decreases significantly as one moves outward from the city center.
Live Search Maps has a tendency to mark certain unsigned three-digit Interstates in the United States, such as I-444 , I-110, , I-478, and the Interstate Highways in Alaska. . Still other auxiliary Interstates, whose signs are not posted for various reasons, are labeled incorrectly as part of another Interstate. Examples are I-695 (DC), which is labeled as part of I-295 (DC), and I-878, which is labeled as I-678.
Live Search Maps also includes several terabytes of satellite and aerial imagery. In many areas, maximum resolution is approximately 4.5 pixels per meter. Elsewhere, especially in the most remote areas of the world, top resolution is a few orders of magnitude less. Users may toggle labels on or off, choosing whether to see the ground as it would appear from an airplane versus closer to how it would appear on a map.
List of countries that have detailed satellite images:
Bird's eye view: In over 100 cities in the United States, Canada and in over 80 European locations,a bird's-eye view offers aerial photos from four angles. These Pictometry images are much more detailed than the aerial views from directly above buildings. Signs, advertisements, pedestrians, and other objects are clearly visible in many bird's eye views.
3D Maps: The 3D Maps feature lets user see buildings in 3D, with the added ability to rotate and tilt the angle in addition to panning and zooming. To attempt to achieve near-photorealism, all 3D buildings are textured using composites of aerial photography.
To view the 3D maps, users must install a plugin, then enable the "3D" option on "Virtual Earth". In addition to exploring the maps using a mouse and keyboard, it is possible to navigate the 3D environment using an Xbox 360 controller or another game controller in Windows Vista or Windows XP. As of April 2007, users may also use 3Dconnexion's SpaceNavigator input device.
Currently, roughly 68 cities worldwide may be viewed in 3D, including most of the major cities in the United States and a few cities in Canada, the United Kingdom, and France.[9] Some additional cities have had a select few important landmarks modelled in 3D, such as the Colosseum in Rome. Terrain data is available for the entire world. It is also possible to use a simple 3D modelling program called Virtual Earth - 3DVIA to add one's own models to the 3D map.
The following is a partial list of cities that have most areas rendered in 3D:
United States Atlanta, Augusta, Aurora-Naperville, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Boston, Buffalo, Cape Coral, Cedar Rapids, Chattanooga, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Coral Springs, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Huntsville, Indianapolis, Jackson, Jacksonville, Joliet, Kansas City, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Mobile, Montgomery, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland (OR), Redmond, Rockford, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Savannah, Seattle, Shreveport, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, Tacoma, Tallahassee, Tampa, Tucson, West Palm Beach.
Canada Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Toronto
United Kingdom Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Eastbourne, Gloucester, Liverpool, Northampton, Plymouth, Southampton, Swindon, Wolverhampton
France Toulouse, Vannes
Japan Tokyo
Austria Vienna
ClearFlow: Microsoft announced in March 2008 that it will be releasing its latest software technology called “ClearFlow”. It is a Web-based service for driving directions available on Live.com in 72 cities across the U.S. The tool took five years for Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence team to develop. ClearFlow provides real-time traffic data to help drivers avoid traffic congestion. Differing from Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps and Mapquest, ClearFlow not only gives information for alternative routes, but supplies traffic conditions on city streets adjacent to highways. Clearflow anticipates traffic patterns, while taking into account sporting/arena events, time of day and weather conditions, and then reflects the back ups and their consequential spill over onto city streets. Often, ClearFlow found it may be faster to stay on the highway instead of seeking alternative side street routes, which involve traffic lights and congestion as well.
According to U.S Microsoft employee and artificial intelligence expert, Eric Horvitz, “…ClearFlow would be integrated into Live Search Mobile and other Microsoft mobile applications, including in-car navigation and personal navigation devices.” will be available at no cost. The one draw back of Clearflow is that it offers no real-time updates regarding highway and road closures or accidents
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