SEATTLE: Microsoft Corporation is introducing a search service this summer providing access to users to satellite maps to obtain information of a selected area. The searcher can get an understanding of the selected area's weather, trafffic, businesses, restaurants, movie theaters and what not at any given point of time, the company said.
It's called MSN Virtual Earth, available in a customziable format on the MSN homepage and will take on services like Google's Google Earth and a similar service from Amazon.com
Microsoft co-founder and chief software architect Bill Gates revealed at a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal near San Diego that the service will use satellite imagery for location-based searches. It will have high resolution imagery, three-dimensional drawings and driving directions as its main features. It can facilitate multiple searches onto a single map.
Some of the enhanced features that will be added in the fall are high-fidelity images captured by a fleet of small planes, says Microsoft's MapPoint business general manager Stephen Lawler.
"You can really establish that what-is-it-like-there kind of feeling," Lawler said. "This is a game-changing kind of imagery for the Internet and for this kind of search experience we're trying to create."
A unit of Microsoft, Microsoft Research, has developed a technology using satellite imagery to create a global mapping database, called TerraServer, which will be the main database for the new service, the company said. The company has an exclusive license for aerial photo imagery from Pictometry International of Rochester.
Google has its Google Earth, which was introduced after the company acquired Keyhole, a satellite iomaging software company.
Gates also showcased a new MSN start page that allows users to organize information sources on an MSN-provided home page, in line with similar services offered by Yahoo, Google and America Online.
