MSN and the City

Microsoft has overhauled its MSN City Guides online destination providing users with a range of enhancements better suited to connect them with locations, businesses, and events across US cities. MSN City Guides is a local offering from the Redmond company tailored specifically to the US market. The main aspect of the evolution of MSN City Guides is that the service is now designed to go well beyond MSN and integrate Windows Live and Facebook. Over 5,000 cities in the United States have been reviewed, with the content available to users immediately.

“The new MSN City Guides puts city life at your fingertips,” promised Scott Moore, U.S. executive producer, MSN. “All the information you need about a city or neighborhood is there easy to find, easy to use, easy to share. Our goal is to deliver the best resource for navigating U.S. cities, whether you’re a die-hard local or just visiting.” Read more

Insight on the Virtual Earth

Live Search Maps/Virtual Earth has grown with the integration of content from Photosynth. Essentially, Microsoft is now integrating synths into its mapping, location and search platform. This means that Virtual Earth users will no longer be able to explore only aerial, Bird’s Eye and satellite imagery, but also 3D environments put together with 2D pictures with various locations around the world, namely synths. Microsoft has blended together two of its services making available Photosynth content from Live Search Maps.

“In order to find Photosynths in Live Search Maps you’ll search for a location. In the welcome pane, you’ll see a link for ‘Explore Collections’ which you click and begin seeing all kinds of collections. Read more

A 3D Virtual World on Top of Virtual Earth?

Is Microsoft preparing to build a 3D virtual world on top of its Virtual Earth mapping and location platform? Well, truth be told, this scenario is not as far-fetched as it might seem initially. Online hotspots, such as Second Life, are delivering virtual worlds complete with societies and functional economies. And Microsoft’s Virtual Earth might offer the same in the coming future. A 3D Virtual Earth universe could be in the making, courtesy of Caligari Corp. Caligari is best known for its 3D modeling and animation work, and trueSpace is an illustrative example. As of February 6, 2008, Caligari has joined Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. Read more