The Hindu Business Line : Spot me standing there?

IF you are going to a new place, it is certain that you will do a search on Google to find out what is in store there. All you need to do is just key in the name of the place, and innumerable sites will come up, giving you all kinds of information.

In the next level of location search on the Net, you will actually be zooming down streets and even buildings, taking a closer, virtual look at them. No more worries about getting lost in some dark alley in an alien land!

Well, such services are not exactly new. Mapquest, which providers traffic directions, is a popular site in the US. But now biggies such as Microsoft and Google are aggressively planning services around virtual mapping in their effort to offer users more.

Microsoft recently announced its plan to launch `MSN Virtual Earth' even as Google previewed its Google Earth.

Microsoft has tied up with Pictometry International Corp to source aerial images. Google had last year acquired a company called Keyhole, which had developed a 3-D mapping technology.

MSN Virtual Earth, which is expected to be online during summer, will provide users 45-degree angle views of buildings and street maps, allowing them to explore a certain area of choice. Users will be able to get not just straight-down aerial images because of this feature.

The service will be free of charge. MSN Officials claim that users can integrate Virtual Earth to their e-mail and send maps and images as links by a single click. So if you are giving directions to a friend to reach your home, you can simply send the map over e-mail.

MSN is using MapPoint technology for Virtual Earth. Pictometry, with which Microsoft has signed a five-year agreement, will license its existing and new nationwide aerial images for use in the Virtual Earth and MapPoint product offerings.

Virtual Earth can identify a particular location and then search for say, restaurants and shopping malls in the area. Its multiple search facility will help users find out, say, a bookshop in a particular area and an ATM nearby to withdraw cash to buy a title.

MSN Virtual Earth claims that one major difference it has from Google Earth, apart from being a free service, is that users need not download software.

Google Earth, on the other hand, will be a paid service made available to Keyhole subscribers. The service is expected to be launched in a few weeks' time. Google Earth will have a new global database and new data sources such as NASA terrain maps.

It will replace the present Keyhole desktop software with another, which will have features such as Google's local search and driving directions, according to Google officials. The service will use Keyhole's database of aerial and satellite images, and also includes terrain data from NASA. Google says it covers more locations across the globe, such as rural and wild. Picture resolutions have also been upped.

As local search gets more and more popular, the advertising revenue for such services isbound to increase. Advertisers can target their ads at users searching for a particular product or service in particular location.

It may still be early days for us in India to get such location search services on the Net, but trust the power of the Internet and the prowess of our techies to get around our unique geographic and demographic issues — and come up with such services.

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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