Posted by Charles // Thu, Dec 8, 2005 11:29 AM
The last time we talked with the Virtual Earth team they promised new "Eagle Eye" photography and new features. Here they've delivered and talk about the new features.
Check it out at http://local.live.com.
Tags: Virtual+Earth
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| Video Length: 00:35:20
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Replies:
22
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39,086
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WOW, didn't watch the video yet, but the visuals from virtual earth are amazing. I like the pushpin feature too and mapping, very cool - and i like the way you did the printing, i was wondering about that with the map and all.
One thing that I did notice which is missing, although I have since started using this over google maps -- is the back button. There is no way to bounce to a prior search (unless you push pin everything).
Is there any way that can be fixed for a future version?
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I have 2 question with Virtual Earth
1. why is the background of aerial images dark? (in my area)
2. In the Aerial view when i zoom in and in after certain point i see a blank screen why? why not stop when i reach to the last zoomable image just like Google.
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You guys are SO going to get sued by the makers of Sim City (joke).
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How can you have Bird's Eye views for Albuquerque, NM but not Chicago?! It's the third largest city in the country! Since I live there it's a big disappointment. 
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Awesome! This is where I went to college last year. This is very very very cool.
The photo's are about 1 year old.
I wish I would of had local.live.com when I was applying to colleges.
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I can't believe it, but my small town has birds eye view imagery! This is freaking awesome. The weird thing is though, on the normal imagery, my house doesn't exist, but on the birds eye, it does! I think this is a google maps/earth killer. My friends seem to agree too, when I said that they replied 'it will'. All the virtual earth team needs to do, is to update the images, all color all high resolution. Granted it will take a while, but I think they should aim to be the first with the whole US in color and high resolution with updated images which are no older than 3 years.
Problem though, in Firefox, it feels like when I click pan, that my click gets stuck and I have to click again to release that click...it is very annoying. I like the same look in firefox though, transparency! Please fix that click problem though!
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Fabuloso!! Not tried the website yet but just watched the video. I live in Scotland, UK and can't wait for it to come here.
It was appeasing i'm sure for you to do the 45deg mapping for several sections of US cities, but I feel to make good on the "Earth" part of the service these sections of US cities should have been sacrifised and taken from other cities around the world, that would have been better.
I said it before and I guess its up to the manufacturer but I would like to see the Kodak EasyShare cam use its built in Wi-Fi feature to add meta-data into the photo when a picture is take, similar to the where am i feature.
Keep it up guys, this I like very much.
Samuel, UK
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Ah, I remember when this was shown in some other C9 video before and thinking how awesome it was. This is in fact very cool stuff. Have there been attempts to make it a more seamless view like the aerial and road views instead of click to go to north portion, etc.?
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Hello:
Good job, Eagle eye is a cool view option  but... When i could see Europe aerial or road imagen?
Thanks
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 | cravikiran wrote:
Ah, I remember when this was shown in some
other C9 video before and thinking how awesome it was. This
is in fact very cool stuff. Have there been attempts to make
it a more seamless view like the aerial and road views instead of click
to go to north portion, etc.? |
yeah, besides switching some mouse panning issues in firefox, I'd
definitely recommend you allow a seamless view without clicking on
chunks of the data. However, I can understand that the pictures
are probably very big and there is some serious processing going on...
This blows GEarth out of the water. Especially when I can
pinpoint the EXACT FLOOR where I work in NYC and in a chat with a
friend from Amazon, I can send him my entire scratch pad and vice versa.
One other very helpful update would be:
Allow a link to a birds-eye view to contain information about each
scratch pad item's Zoom (zoomed in or out) and direction of view
(N/S/E/W). I've had to had a friend/family member follow specific
written directions to see the correct view of each pinpoint.
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Oh so that's what America looks like, its all fun parks and rides.
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Awesome 
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Awesome stuff. Here is a link that shows a little of my world...and it's more than fun and games:
http://tinyurl.com/by8ru
Once
the link loads, first thing you do is click the little [X] next to the
Welcome box so it closes. Then follow the directions below:
You'll see a bunch of links in the scratch pad on the left. Here's how u can see them all:
1) First of all, double-click on the #5 icon on the map. Keep
double-clicking on it until you see a big building on the top-left-hand
side. Yes, you guessed it - the Empire State building! No,
I don't work there - but I and thousands others see it on their commute
into NYC.
2) Then click on the link #1 (and mouse over #1). Then, click on
the big building icon (top left icon). Then click link #2 (and
mouse over #2).
Yes, that's the church I attend - note: it's a woodsy area.
3) After that, click #3 (Lava Trading). To see it, you then click
the E on the compass and then click the small building (top left
icon). That's where I work – move your mouse over the #3.
I'll be waving from the 6th floor window...
4) Then, click on #4 – that's the PATH/NJ Transit train station - the
train hub in Hoboken which I pass through daily as I switch trains.
5) Then click on #6 – that's the Howe Center at Stevens Institute of
Technology. My alma mater...where I got my couple of degrees last
May.
So there's a little of my world.
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The Bird's Eye feature is addicting. Here is my world. - I live here. - I work here. - This is my commute. - I pay $320 per month to park my car here (pushpin #2). Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson are currently filming the movie Super-Ex Girlfriend, on this street. A famous celebrity's roof top is here.
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Wow....Thats my first d/l of a video here...
If all of them are that impressice i'm gonna have a new addiction...
This is gonna be cool...(if its gonna be transferred to europe, too)...
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Please do not mind if I make comparison with the Local Live! against Google Local.
When I first seen Virtual Earth a few months back, and it does not amaze me much, as I already seen the Google Maps, which is far more advance.
However, today, when I saw this demo, I can tell you that, Your Virtual Earth rocks!
I like it pretty much. I am staying in Malaysia, hence we might not have most of the features yet. However, I can't really wait until Microsoft spread this service to my city
However, for area outside US, Google map has a greater degree of zooming. However, Virtual Earth did a smoother navigation. And I'm glad, you did make it well.
Please keep up the good work, and do expand it across souteast Asia countries
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Actually, MS has these images for years at terraserver.microsoft.com, though the interface there is not as friendly as local.live.com.
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I'll admit that the Bird's Eye feature does give more detail for a few US cities. However, when compared with google earth...we have:
- 3D buildings and terrain
- Much better imagery for many other places, particularly Europe (I live in the UK, so I'm far more interested in the 6" resolution images of my area than even better images of the Statue of Liberty)
- Business listings for places outside the US
- A "Fly-to" feature that you can put a town name into, and go there, even if it is in Sudan.
- Smoother zooming and navigation, with one detail level replacing another directly, rather than the screen blanking in between
- A wealth of layers, showing or hiding everything from schools to national geographic articles
- Dedicated kml and kmz file formats
VE is comparable to Google Maps, Google's very basic web-based map service. VE is probably better for the US, but GM is still much more useful for the UK. Google Earth, the downloadable currently in version 3.0.0762, is simply on another level altogether. Comparing it to VE is like comparing the forthcoming Word 12 with Notepad.
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We've created a redesign of the Virtual Earth site that we're calling "Atlas".
We think it's the cleanest, most drop-dead simple, web-based mapping and searching tool to date. For us it's a starting point where we'll begin adding mashups and have plans for several new features in the future.
Atlas is freely available at: http://atlas.freshlogicstudios.com/
Fresh Logic Studios
contact@freshlogicstudios.com
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I know this is an on thread but Google has recently updated to include all of the EU in its mapping. You may say "so what" MS has this since the start.
Thing is I would like to know, not when the Eagle-Eye feature is going to come the the EU, but when it will start to be included properly into the map.
I don't mind if all of the US is covered, I just want to see it working properly, seamelss you know. Then include the EU, but do hurry up thanks.
Samuel
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