Live Local Update
Wednesday, 24th May 2006 by Alex Turnbull
As reported by both the Google Earth Blog and Ogle Earth, Microsoft has provided an awesome update to the UK satellite imagery on their Live Local service. (I still can't work the zoom tool unfortunately, has anyone else noticed that dragging the slider sends the zoom the wrong way?)
Anyway, despite being a little disappointed that I have to use Live Local to see it, I'm nonetheless very pleased to be able to scroll around high-res imagery of Google Sightseeing's home town for the first time! Yes, Edinburgh, along with loads of other places in the UK is now covered with some fantastic quality shots. They even managed to capture Edinburgh on a sunny day!
In our thumbnail you can see the world famous Edinburgh Castle, which has the seating in place on the Castle Esplanade for the yearly Tattoo, which takes place at the same time as the Festival. However the tent for the book festival tent hasn't been erected yet, which places these images around late July. Furthermore, Ocean Terminal hasn't been finished yet, so I reckon this is probably July 2000.
I could post a bazillion things from Edinburgh (like where I used to skateboard, my primary school or my house) but I won't. I hereby promise only to post things which other people submit!
P.S. Mac users note that Live Local still doesn't work in Safari.
Thanks to Jenni, Nev and Simon.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
I suppose you can’t complain if Live Local has what Google does not, but for where I live (East London), the Live Local imagery is about 4 years older than Google’s – several buildings aren’t there.
And spurred by your findings, I checked out my mother’s house which Google has very little for. Live Local just has a high resolution image of a field.
So Live Local, fix the zoom, and update your pics!
You wonder about the slider in Windows Live Local (Beta): it’s not a slider, it’s only a marker of the zoom. You click in the marker field, and the marker goes to there with the zoom. The [+] and the [-] will do this in steps at a rate of six (!) steps at one click ! I Say only one thing: Microsoft !
I follow Google Sightseeing with interest and amusemant. A great job ! Thanks Max
As much as I dislike Microsoft, Live Local’s UK coverage is now much better than Google’s – I’ve been able to view many places I’ve wanted to see but just couldn’t with Google Maps. I hope they catch up soon!
I also noticed the images are a few years behind Google’s. And Google’s are a few years behind present! It makes the two sites in combination a useful historical record!
good day sir haw i get a new maps on google earth because the maps 4 years old best regards