If you're interested in looking at satellite imagery, Google is the better choice. I'm not sure all its features are supported in Firefox 1.5 and below can someone confirm? But it does work in Firefox 2.0.MS appears to be countering this with Bird's Eye view, but the two are just not the same. Google Maps' satellite view is considerably more detailed and updated in some places, including Shanghai, Pyongyang, Ho Chi Minh City.Color scheme is uglier in some places (compare Tokyo road view in both Google and Live).On my 1.7 GHz 512 MB RAM laptop, Live Local causes the fan to spin up far more often than Google Maps. Performance is worse than Google Maps.You can't turn off the 'example searches' pane in Google. Live Local's panels are removable, yielding more visible map area than Google Maps. Google has auto-saving of locations (which was added after Live Local's collections), but as far as I can tell, it does not permit sharing or customization of locations. You can add text, images, and URLs to places on a collection, and viewers of a collection can generate driving directions between any of its places (as well as any other arbitrary point). This might be a silly example, but some friends visited Seattle recently and wanted suggestions on places to visit. You can create collections of places and share them on Live Local. Live Local has better sharing features.I can find directions from Glasgow, UK to Palermo, Italy. Live Local's direction finding seems more capable than Google's.Useful if you intend on going to multiple places when driving.

This means I can see the locations of all Safeways, libraries, and CompUSAs on the same map. I can perform up to 3 simultaneous map searches.Images are taken from an airplane, so detail is awesome. Note that Yahoo Maps expands upon this by letting you add waypoints, but it's too slow for me. Rainier National Park, and Google Maps can't seem to find it. Problem is that I don't know the address of Paradise point at Mt. Google Maps requires that I type in addresses. Directions between arbitrary points: Right-click anywhere to select the From and To points to find directions.From a globe view I can zoom to my house in a few seconds with Live Local's box zooming. (I don't mind the copying, though the more the merrier!) I can't live without the middle-click, box zooming, though. It was the first to add mouse wheel scroll zooming, which Google Maps has added. Here's why (adapted from a post I wrote in a previous story that didn't get much attention): I use Live Local/Virtual Earth almost exclusively. Pretty detailed shots too, and in one you could even see me mowing the lawn in the backyard! I had lots of fun with this one.ДЄctually, I think it is a threat. When I plugged in my address (which is kind of in the middle of nowhere), up popped 3 different viewing angles of my house. Every once in a while, Microsoft does something right.

Vitual earth 3d