M$ launches drive-bys in Seattle and San Fransciso.

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The Virtual Earth team is pleased to launch a preview of a new feature we have been working on – interactive Street-side browsing. You can try it out at http://preview.local.live.com Street-side imagery allows you to drive around a city looking at the world around you as if you were in a car. But unlike the real world, you can stop your car anywhere you like and rotate your view around 360degrees. Currently we have street-side imagery for San Francisco and Seattle online, and we are planning to have many more cities added when we formally integrate this feature into Windows Live Local this summer.

One of the most interesting features is to put you in ‘Street’ view map style. In this mode, all of the street-side images are pasted flat on the map to give you a very unique overview of an area. It takes some getting used to, but once you adjust to it you’ll find it provides a very compelling companion view for our Hybrid maps. Street view helps you orient yourself quickly in an area, while the street side views then show more detail presented as you would see it in the real-world.
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This is cool and all, but it seems that after Google stepped into the mix with Google Earth, people have been falling all over this (for the most part) useless tool. Why?
 
I'm sure there is some sort of practical application but it's nothing more than gadgetry to the avg person imo
 
I think it is kind of like the CD-Encyclopedias in the mid 90's like Encarta. That was always the big selling point on QVC or whatever. Now they use Google Earth. It looks cool and people imagine it is usefull but then they find out it really isn't all that handy.

Although I found one good use for it. I'm looking to hop into the real estate market possibly in the near future so I've mapped out a neighborhood that I'm interested in on Google Earth. Every time a property sells I put a pushpin on it with the asking price and the sale price. Helps me keep a good grasp on what properties are going for in that area. That way when a house get's put on the market I can usually guess pretty accurately what it's worth.
 
Actually I can see a good idea for it, but only for short period since city streets tend to change every few months. The idea was to incorporate it into the directions so instead of explaining what a 'soft turn right' is you can actually show that theres an actual fork in the road.
 
Ryokurin said:
Actually I can see a good idea for it, but only for short period since city streets tend to change every few months. The idea was to incorporate it into the directions so instead of explaining what a 'soft turn right' is you can actually show that theres an actual fork in the road.
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Still seems very limited compared to the resources involved to make it.
 
Why did they put all that money into something like that when they should be working on their new OS? I mean come on, it's time and it better be a hell of a lot more advanced than the shit that we've seen in the past. Come on. Stupid features.
 
shawndavid said:
Drats!

The next thing you're going to tell me is that Patrick Swayze isn't the most pimpinest...:confused:
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he's so dreamy!:haaay:
cpswayzep.jpg
 
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