Google maps vs Live maps
This post is not spam related, but I'd still like to talk about it.
For the longest time, I always used Google maps as my map-interface of choice whenever I wanted to search for a location. I thought that it had the best user interface.
I think I'm switching over to Live maps, from Microsoft, for a couple of reasons:
- Google maps has been off on certain locations a couple of times, that is, when I search for a place, the map location is wrong, sometimes by several hundred yards.
- Craigslist map locations are understood better by Live Maps than by Google maps. What I mean is that sometimes people put shorthand into the location of a Craigslist ad. I click on the Google Map and there is an error. I copy and paste it into Live Maps and it finds it just fine.
- Live Maps interface is now nicer. The Road view now looks as good as Google's (before it was too small), it matches Google's functionality and I just discovered Bird's Eye view, which Google Maps doesn't have. I clicked it on and thought "Wow, this is really neat." For me, that's the clincher.
Google beat Microsoft to the punch here (in terms of getting a good mapping application first to market), but I think Microsoft has done an excellent job catching up.