Microsoft is playing catch-up to rival Google with the release of a beta world mapping service, MSN Virtual Earth.
Virtual Earth is a wrap up of a number of location-based services, including mapping of the world's surface, map annotation and location save and share features — echoing Google Earth, which was released last month. Microsoft has also combined road mapping with aerial photography — as has Google.
However, Microsoft has also released a separate client-side application, Microsoft Location Finder, which integrates with MSN Virtual Earth and allows a user to pinpoint their own position by means of signals from wireless networks.
Location Finder, which works with Wi-Fi-enabled tablet PCs, laptops and PDAs, detects the MAC address — the unique signature — of each network address and correlates that information with its own location database to determine a user's position.
Microsoft has also set up a developers' area to encourage coders to build additional functionality around the geo-locating service.
The service is likely to have limited usefulness at present, with just north America mapped out, although Microsoft is reportedly looking into mapping other areas including the UK. Location Finder will also only be of use in urban areas, where Wi-Fi density is highest.
Dean Bubley, of research firm Disruptive Analysis, said that accuracy could also be a problem, unless Microsoft has unlimited budget "to drive a car with logging equipment around every street, in every city, in every country and repeat that once every few months".
Although the software would not be accurate enough for emergency services to locate an individual, Bubley said the system did have some advantages. "I would imagine it's cheaper to do that than do a cell ID look up [with a mobile operator]," he said. "With GPS, you need to have an uplink and it doesn't work too well indoors. With Wi-Fi, that's presumably where you are."
Microsoft seems to have joined the location-based services market at the right time. Analyst Berg Insight is predicting 153 percent growth in European revenues alone this year, to €274m (£188m). The key driver will be navigation services, it said.
Talkback
It's hardly a "virtual Earth" if it only maps out the USA!
I did try and use the locator using my current IP address and it found the right area (München), but yep, you can' zoom in.
One of the big benefits over Google Earth (and really suprising for a Microsoft product ;-) ) is that it is multi-platform, apart from the Wi-Fi location finder, it looks like it is platform independent, whereas Google is only works under Windows - so I have no idea how it compares, I don't have any Windows machines running at the moment.
Given Microsoft/MSN's history, I am really impressed with its openness for once, now, once they can map the world and actually make it "Virtual Earth", as opposed to "Virtual USA" it might be a useful product.
I think that the Locate Me option that uses Wi-Fi would be really useful as a cheap GPS for digital cameras. Take the Kodak EasyShare One cam that has Wi-Fi built in allowing the user to send images over the web or syncing wirelessly with a computer.
If the cam could use Wi-Fi to locate itself then it could put the location data in the meta-data, and Wi-Fi is more accurate than GPS at the mo!!
P.S. even better would be if the cam inbedded the co-ordinates so when the pics are on the computer somehow Windows, for example, could tap into the Virtual Earth's database and show you the 45 degree 'Eagle Eye' view of where it is in real life!!!
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