Try MSN Virtual Earth

Posted Jul 24th 2005 9:23AM by Marc Orchant

MSN Virtual Earth is now online. Very slick. It offers great panning performance and a nice Scratch Pad feature (look under Options on the tool bar). The Location Finder tool needs some work though - it thinks I'm in Indiana (where Comcast lives). Looking out the window at the vista (sorry - couldn't resist), it's clear I'm still in New Mexico.

Here's the maximum zoom onto the roof of my office.

Interesting note - certain places are blocked - for example, the White Sands Missle Range in Southern New Mexico is not shown as I zoom in. Same with certain locations in Washington, D.C. and Area 51 in Nevada.

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. Hmm... not bad. Browser support is pretty bad at the moment, hardly anything works in Safari and there are some glitches in Firefox.

Its a poor imitation of Google Maps. The "Aerial Photos" are no match for google's satellite images which cover a lot more of the earth than Virtual Earth.

According to Virtual Earth, there are no roads in the UK and most of Europe. Perhaps they should rename this "MSN Virtual America"

Posted at 4:57AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Chris Parker

2. browser support is pretty bad at the moment, hardly anything works in safari and there are some glitches in firefox.

Posted at 4:57AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Brian

3. the register has been having fun with the vintage images in msn ve -- with apple's cupertino campus still an empty lot in the ve images. i'm sure lots of similar lacunae exist, but i discovered that -- while the buildings housing both republican and democratic national committees in washington exist in the ve images -- the gop hq can be quickly located by searching for "republican national committee" "washington dc" but a similar search for "democratic national committee" "washington dc" (about three blocks away in reality) returns "no results were found."

Posted at 4:57AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Ted Coltman

El nombre Senna regresa a la Fórmula 1 ¿Como? SEGURIDAD: Ford inventa los cinturones bolsas de aire VIDEO: Boxster Spider, el nuevo miembro de la familia Porsche	The DIY Reel: Growing Herbs for Kitchen Decor Reduce Speeding on Your Street Daily DIY: How to Make a Pumpkin Facial Mask
Dark Creek Road, Estate of the Day Angular Momentum Belle Epoque Eternal Time Watch Unearthing Shackleton's Whisky	Trade #2: Coca-Cola (KO) Petrobras shares continue to ascend Consumer spending falls victim to debt repayment
Curtis Stone Wants to Cook You Dinner Editor's Picks - Best of the Rest Angostura Bitters Shortage Shakes Up Cocktail World	Why the TSA insists on screening wheelchairs National parks free for Veterans Day! UK online bookings to grow this year