Saturday July 23

MSN Virtual Ansel Adams

Blake just pointed me at the freshly launched MSN Virtual Earth (via Steve Rubel). Of course, the very first thing I did was go to Manhattan and checked out the satellite photos. Needless to say, I was surprised to find some embarrassingly awful black and white imagery. I think the greatest city in the world deserves better, don't you?

I was ready to give the thumbs down to Virtual Earth, but then I paid a visit to Atlanta. There I found not only lovely color images, but an incredibly close-up zoom that goes way beyond the depth that Google Maps allows. I was impressed, so I anxiously zipped to my home town of Los Gatos, hoping for the same quality images.

I was shocked to learn that my town has become stuck in a bad H.G. Wells novel!! As you can see, the northern part of the town has joined us on our voyage to the year 2005, while the southern half is still stuck in 1947. I will have to remember to put on my good pair of knickers next time I walk downtown for coffee.

If I were MSN, I would have put a little more care into the consistency of these images before rushing this thing to market. Still, I give them credit for making it work in Firefox.

I'll stick with Google Maps for now.