MSN now has a new feature. It is similar to Google Maps.
called virtual Earth.
http://virtualearth.msn.com/

The name seems similar to google earth service but actually it is a competitor to google maps. It is still in beta.

I got this info from
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/000788.html

Looks like Msft is starting to feel the heat of google and yahoo's services.. But none of these services have maps outside the USA. Do they feel that all the internet users are in USA or what???
They would find a greater audience once they start offering such services for other countries too.. I know they need to get the images and permissions... etc but when everyone wants it and competes for it.. the one getting it first is sure to have a lead...

Cheers.

I just had a look at this virtual earth. I've never gone on anything like it before and I thought it was mega cool! I don't know whether other places have better ones but I thought it was really cool for just exploring places from above or planning trips. It certainly seemed a bit shakey and froze a couple of times but I think it's really good that this kind of thing is available on the internet instead of having to use atlaces and stuff. I know that you can get road maps of the UK and stuff online, but I've never seen something that's actually interactive and goes anywhere in the world.

Well, I don’t think it is in anyway comparable to Google Earth. I have installed Google earth and I am quite impressed by the satellite image from Google earth that even shows the rooftop of the building I am living in. Although Google earth is not performing that well in the realm of locating buildings on the streets, it can be improved fairly easily in later versions. Another bad thing about Google earth is that the images of some cities, e.g. Melbourne, are composed of two or more satellite images of different resolution. This gives the interesting result of showing the eastern part of the city in lower resolution then the western part.

Anyway, M$ has always been a copycat as far as technology is concerned. Look at Wallop, Space, MSN messenger, MSN.com, Jscript, ASP and you see why this company is always providing second-rated service at a first rate price.

Super cool!
I love the tricks when I rool my wheel mouse, it's zoom out and in easily.
Yet, another new service from microsoft.

The MSN Virtual Earth service is actually pretty good, even when compared to Google Maps. I think that it is a great technological acheivement when you realize that the whole thing is coded so it works in a web browser. Good job Microsoft. I hope to see more quality products as this one in the near future.

MSN Virtual earth has a long way to go before it can compete seriously with Google earth.... We'll just have to wait and see what they do with it.

No matter if it´s a competitor of google maps or google earth. The fact is that Microsoft is once again, copying what their competitors do first and better. This is the main strategy since first Windows release, and here we have another "step" of microsoft, in this case behind google.

The sad thing is that they are always victorious, I wish their luck changed.

Things don´t have to be cool only... useful, reliable, (but not cool) could be adjectives that would fit MSN Virtual Earth if it were really a good and revolutionary tool.

wow .. this is the one that is to compete with google map ... very interesting battle betwwen microsoft and google ...

Microsoft's Virtual Earth service may seem like it's a good cometitor for Google Earth. But in reality, it's far from it. This is simply Microsoft, once again, trying to not fall short of Google. It's say really, because being such a powerful, influential, and wealthy corporation, you'd think they'd be able to put out software that was at least a viable alternative to something else. I use Windows, and I think it's decent. But some of Microsoft's other products have me worried. Especially this new attempt at fighting Google.

For one, there are a lot of different areas in MSN Earth that are just plain inaccurate, and not in the sense that they're outdated (which is still unreasonable), but completely messed. Scribbles here and there, etc. The interface is another thing to gawk at. It's slow, and no-where near as sleek as Google's own. And Google provides more back-end support to their service than Microsoft does (Since %80 of their effort goes into making the interface look cool instead of making it work).

Google actually renders their service custom tailored to whatever browser happens to be using it to work at maximum performance, and give great results. All their maps are up-to-date, and they are doing at great job at maintaining it.

Just because Microsoft recently released it is no excuse for it to suck. Microsoft, working with the resources they have at their disposal, has no room for mediocrity.