Jaa

Live Maps switches to Multimap

  • Artikkeli

Multimap

I spoke the the Live Product Manager the other day and he said this was coming, but I didn't realise how quickly! Just goes to show how easy it is to develop on Virtual Earth!

This switch is only for the UK, Multimap has the biggest share of Map visitors in the UK so I guess brand familiarisation was a factor.  However, brand consistency is lost and perhaps has become more convoluted. 

Thinking about it though, what does it matter?  The Live brand doesn't really have much brand recognition anyway so perhaps leveraging the multimap brand makes sense in the UK.

The user interface is a hybrid model where in standard map mode you get original multimap tiles and UI and in Aerial mode you get Virtual Earth.  Gone are the "Hybrid" and "Road" option which was talked about before - who knows what "Hybrid" means anyway!!??

Of course Bird's Eye is VE only and it's nice to see they've integrated that in there too.  There's no access to 3D view though which is poor and I have to say the multimap maps aren't as clear to look at. They've also disabled any mouse wheel zooming which I can't stand - come on guys - sort it out!

Their UI widgets like zoom in and move map are cleaner than the standard VE one though and they've also incorporated Wikipedia information on the map which is quite cute. One of the great things about Multimap is their local information and I can toggle on/off cash points (ATMs) and things like petrol stations which is quite useful for planning road trips. In and around London you get tube stations too.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    You'll be glad to hear that normal service is resumed on Live Maps :-)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    PingBack from http://wikipedia.doorwayblogging.info/?p=15995

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    There has been some good debate for the pros and cons (mainly cons on the debate) of the switch from

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
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  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Absolutely not Martin!  It's all great feedback to send to the Product Manager - keep it coming!!!!  I'm on your side as a frustrated user! James

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2008
    Could someone enlighten me as to what are the benefits of this, i hope there are benefits else why would MS do it

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2008
    This is shocking. Live maps were really good, multimap is a shocking pile of rubbish. Bring back the old maps. I'll be just using google maps from now on it seems.

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2008
    I like the fact that when I zoom out past a certain point I can choose OS maps instead of the default TeleAtlas ones, since OS show things like rights of way, footpaths etc. Only 1:50,000 scale but still pretty useful. You ask who knows what "hybrid" means - I do, for one. I find that an overlay of road map on actual overhead imagery gives a better perspective of where I am and is useful to build a mental picture of an area. The new equivalent term seems to be to turn on road naming under the Aerial button (this also highlights streets to make them stand out from the background). Now you just need to get it to work in IE8! (Beta Version 8.0.6001.17184 shows map tiles way outside their containing border area, this was broken before the switch to Live)

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2008
    Sorry, but even with the so-called localizationness of Multimap, the features in Live Maps are far more compelling, and Multimap has too much lag. Please fix this. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's one of those boneheaded Microsoft mistakes that gets users angry at them so often. You should have left Live Maps like it was.

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2008
    Multimap is a poor substitute for what came before it.  I beg and implore Microsoft to sort this mess out very quickly.

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2008
    Looks like it's back to Google Maps for me, which is a shame as I loved using Live Maps but there is no way I am using Multimap. I stopped using Multi Map years ago. This is such a strange thing for Microsoft to do, what were they thinking???

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2008
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  • Anonymous
    April 13, 2008
    I have the feeling James is censoring some too critical posts here..

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2008
    That's very reassuring James and I appreciate you being on the users side. Just wondered as my comment never got published. Must have been the swearing I guess. But I shall rest assured that it's being passed on to the Product Manager. If he hasn't lost his job by then or resigned by now if he has any dignity left. Any other other secrets you may know and forgot to mention whilst 'chatting' to Product Managers, James? Perhaps Windows Vista SP2 reverting my machine back to Win 3.11? Thanks & All the best, Martin http://hottapcoldtap.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-and-improved-multimap.html

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2008
    Multimap has come back again!... grr...