14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released yesterday the sixth major revision for Live Maps since July 7, 2005. Almost two years ago, the first variant of Live Maps went live, and since then, Microsoft has been hammering away at the service. With the latest refresh, Live Maps now benefits from performance improvements and functionality enhancements along with bug fixes.
At the top of Live Maps' improved features is the addition of Firefox support for 3D mapping. According to Microsoft, users of Firefox 1.5 and beyond on Windows will be able to access the VE3D control.
"It is a Netscape style plugin developed using NPAPI and hosts the VE3D managed control. In Live Maps, click the 3D button on the navigation dashboard to launch the setup to either install or update 3D functionality. The setup process itself has been streamlined for both IE and Firefox users - It's a lot smarter about dependency checks and component installation. Regardless of which browser you use, you only need to run the setup once and you'll be able to go into 3D view in either browser. Memory management and cache performance has been improved in this release of 3D, providing a better overall experience for exploration," revealed a member of the Live Maps/Virtual Earth team.
The enhancements of Live Maps did not however stop at this. In fact, now users will be able to access business ratings and reviews and even contribute with their own opinions. Microsoft is also enabling users to subscribe to Live Maps Collections via RSS, and receive updates immediately as content is updated. Additionally, users will be able to perform area calculations, you can even draw your own shape and see the area in square feet, acres, square kilometers, etc? Traffic and Driving Directions, Address-Only Geocoding and Live Search Maps for Outlook have also been enhanced.