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

Camaro partido en dos ¿Que pasó con el conductor? Audi A1: El más pequeño de la familia ya es oficial (incluye video) ¿Quién es en realidad un vendedor de automóviles?	Should You or Shouldn't You? Tankless Water Heaters The Daily Fix: How to Repair Rotted Wood Carpenter's Pick: Block Planes
Harold Ford's New York City Apartment For Sale Crushpad Hits The Big Time, Moves To Napa Estelle Designs Capsule Collection For Rachel Roy	Baidu Blazes Past 4Q Earnings Expectations Rumors of German Aid to Greece May Be Unfounded Goodyear's Road Should Be Smoother in 2010
Top Chef Masters Season Two Contestants Announced Campbell's Gets a New Executive Chef Best Cheese Gifts for Your Valentine - Cheese Course	150,000 airline seats involved in another Japanese recall 10 tips for saving money on a Florida vacation Daily Pampering: Welcome massages in Puerto Vallarta