Live Search for Mobile Updated

The Live Search team has published a significant update to their Live Search Mobile client application which leverages Microsoft Virtual Earth quite heavily. The new release has some exciting features including Walking Directions, Collection import and Bird’s Eye photography! Location is so critical for mobile applications and Virtual Earth being a core piece of our mobile product only further justifies that it should be a core piece of yours.

Check out deep list of content: 

Feature	Detail	Availability
Local Search	Find local businesses, restaurants, and shops that are nearby.  Quickly see ratings and reviews to see what others have said.  Click to see additional info such as storefront photos and detail reviews.	US, UK, France, Italy
Movie Showtime	Find opening movies and showtimes in your area.  Read movie description including cast, plot summary, critic ratings and genre	US
Share Locale with SMS	Send place of interest (business, restaurant, movie theater) with address to friend via SMS.  Clicking on link in SMS brings up location on map at m.live.com	US
Gas Price	View nearby gas stations to find the cheapest gas.  After locating, get driving directions there	US
Locate me	no more fumbling around with your phone trying to enter your exact location. Location detection helps you automatically find your location even if you're not on a GPS-enabled phone.	US UK
Birds eye view	View area of interest from an aerial view for a 3D-like perspective.	US
Voice Input	Quickly enter text by using voice input rather than dealing with your mobile keypad.  Voice input can be used to enter in search queries or specify location.	US
Query Projection	Save time from typing full queries with predictive query suggestions.  Enter a few letters and see a populated list of predicted or previously entered queries.	US

And how it integrates Live Search components.

FEATURE	DETAILS	AVAILABILITY
Product Search Instant Answer	Search and compare products on the go - detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, price and brand filter, find local retailers	US
xRank Instant Answer	Stay current on your celebrity, musician, or politician of choice with pictures, news headlines, and bio snippets	US, China
Mapping and Traffic Instant Answer	Quickly find map and traffic info about your location at the top of your search results.  This snippet will show up on the m.live.com homepage when you return in the future.	US, China
Movies Instant Answer	Find opening movies and showtimes in your area.  Read movie description including cast, plot summary, critic ratings and genre	US
Weather Instant Answer	See the local 5-day forecast for your city of choice.	US
Stock Instant Answer	Buy, hold, or sell?  See how your favorite stocks and the market performed.  See the local 5-day forecast for your city of choice	US
Walking Directions	Find step-by-step directions for walking from point A-to-B.	US, UK, France, Italy
Adaptive rendering	No more awkward web pages on your mobile phone.  See PC-formatted web pages automatically rendered to display properly on your mobile phone.	All Markets
Mobile Web Crawler	Displays mobile-formatted websites, marked with a mobile phone symbol, informs users that this site has been customized to display mobile phones	US , Canada
Local Search	Find local businesses, restaurants, and shops that are nearby.  Quickly see ratings and reviews to see what others have said.  Click the phone icon to call the business to find additional details.	US, UK, IT, FR, CN, IN, JP

I’ve been running this on my device since day one. The most useful feature for me are the voice input, driving directions and now movie listings! I saw “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” last night. Um, yeah, I should’ve seen Benjamin Button.

For more information on the release, check out the Live Search Blog.

CP

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 21, 2009
  Do you know if this exists for the Blackberry? I mean I know there is a Live Search application for the Blackberry, I am looking at it. But I don't see all the new features. Eric

• Anonymous
  January 21, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 22, 2009
  Do you know if they are going to release the new features for the Blackberry version? Eric http://www.mp2kmag.com

• Anonymous
  January 22, 2009
  The comment has been removed