Microsoft
Maps, satellite photos and Grand Theft Stupid
I’m going to go out on a limb here and disagree with Mike Arrington, who calls the new Microsoft Live Local street-level photo thingamajig a “killer” in one of his typically breathless posts on TechCrunch, in which he says it will help Microsoft’s Live.com continue to “crush” others in the Web 2.0 portal game. I tend to agree with David Galbraith, who suggests quite succinctly that the drive-by map feature is total bollocks and that the Microsoft team have “lost the plot.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The interface, as David points out, is ridiculous - a cheesy, video-game style rendering of a car’s cockpit, which you can switch from a regular car to a race car (complete with fire extinguisher). Quirky and fun? Maybe. I would add “stupid and useless” to that list as well though. As one commenter noted on TechCrunch, “not sure what use I would have for something like this.” A fair point. Not to mention, of course, that Amazon’s A9 launched a similar street-level photo feature about six months ago. True, it doesn’t let you “drive” your virtual “car” down the streets, but I actually see that as a positive rather than a negative.
Now if Microsoft could somehow add virtual people to the streets and let you mow them down like in Grand Theft Auto or Carmaggedon - that would be cool. After all, it is called a “street-side drive-by.” But it would still be useless for mapping or finding your way anywhere.
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grazr
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frankly speaking. Mike A. is full of BS most of the time. He’s full of hype on every darn tiddly bit of a web2.0 company. And when he can BOGU for any of the Big 3 , he’ll do it. Not sure how live.com is going to crush all the portal game.
As for the killer App : Edgeio, lets see how he makes out. After all , thats his startup !!
Mathew, I have to disagree with part of your analysis - the useful part. I do agree that the current state of this prototype is cheesy and silly. However, I do believe there is/will be a usefulness to this type of service. Just to be able to scoot down a street and view an intersection, portion of building, business, etc… could be very useful when someone is trying to get a “feel” for the location they are looking for.
Just today for example, I was going to a seminar in a part of Minneapolis that I’m not totally familiar with - a quick review of the street with this type of service would have saved me 10 minutes. Of couse I went early and got a coffee while looking for the place, so I’ll admit that most of us work around this scenario easily. :)
But…. it is cheesy.
-Rick
Thanks for the comment, Rick. You’re right, it could be useful — I guess I was just overwhelmed by the cheese :-)
Mathew
s written on from Guy Kewney, who’s suffering British Gas’s Homecare 300. Did you know British Gas makes more profit from those contracts than from pumping gas? Oh yes. Avoid. (Seen at The I-Kew)Maps, satellite photos and Grand Theft Stupid Mathew Ingram (who I only discovered through a trackback on a post that followed the post referred to above) with a very nice observation. Oh, and he’s a journalist, for Canada’s Globe and Mail.
Re: Maps, satellite photos and Grand Theft Stupid
Mathew Ingram: “The interface, as David points out, is ridiculous - a cheesy, video-game style rendering of a car’s cockpit, which you can switch from a regular car to a race car (complete with fire extinguisher). Quirky and fun? Maybe. I …
Mathew Ingram: “The interface, as David points out, is ridiculous - a cheesy, video-game style rendering of a car’s cockpit, which you can switch from a regular car to a race car (complete with fire extinguisher). Quirky and fun? Maybe. I would add
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