Monday 5 November 2007

Live maps vs Google maps

I'm currently visiting the mothership in Seattle. Yesterday I had a spare day (I came early to help with jetlag - given that I'm blogging at 05:38 it clearly didn't work!). To help this poor UK driver with the routes between Kirkland and Seattle I went to Google Maps. Just out of interest I went to Live maps, which I haven't used in a little while.

I realize that I'm (a) employed by Microsoft, (b) basing my conclusions on a single experiment, and worse (c) going against the rule of Coolness, but here's the reality: LIVE MAPS IS SIMPLY MUCH BETTER THAN GOOGLE MAPS! The maps are clearer, the photos are a million times better and the new UI is awesome! Microsoft is ahead on this game (and how often can you say that?!)

If only MS stock was as good as Google's...

2 comments:

Drunken Dev said...

I'm not too sure I'd agree with you there.

In normal map only view I've found that google maps contains more detail such as lot sizes and additional location information.

Using arial view google is much clearer while the live maps seem to contain an odd blue tinge. The live maps also seem cloudy as if a smooth/blur filter was applied to the images.

The 3D map view in the live maps while pretty cool does wear off after a while, in the end it's hard to use and not very usefull.

Unknown said...

[...] I'm currently visiting the mothership in Seattle. Yesterday I had a spare day (I came early to help with jetlag - given that I'm blogging at 05:38 it clearly didn't work!). [...]

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