Northampton Gets Live 3D Mapped

This evening reading the TechCrunch take on Microsoft Live 3D Maps, the thought occurred that it would be a lot cooler if I could actually see somewhere I know, mapped in 3D.

Imagine my shock - Northampton (UK), my home town, amongst only 9 that are thus far available.

Glossing over why on earth anybody would choose Northampton over, say, London, Birmingham or Manchester to map, this is indeed very cool. Whilst not perfect (you do need to let your mind ignore the non-3D flatter objects), this is the most the Live brand has impressed me to date. Marvel at the Market Square. I took a glide around the corner to see if the Chronicle & Echo building had the newspaper logo on the front but I can't remember which building it is. Perhaps this is asking a little much in any case.

Another point, Live Maps seems more willing to give me up close imagery of my current Leicestershire locality. Google only manages a fairly greenish blur over most of the Midlands, as if to say "only trees and huts between the major cities, move along".

Strangely, for all practical uses, I still prefer Google. It seems snappier. About to comment on Google's platform independence I now realise that Live Maps in its 2D guise works perfectly well in Firefox, so that might not be valid.

Bottom line here, the mapping battle is a fantastic battle to watch. Is it even worth looking at any of the other contenders at this point or is it a two horse race? Hard to say if they're not all aiming for the same goal. 3D mapping and route planning both need perfecting, then combining. I'd like one of these contenders to take my start point and destination, then show me in full 3D how to get there (sped up, naturally). At this point I don't mind which contender manages it first.

The Queen

Had a look at this Oscar related film this evening. This was not as expected.

- The first half was full of comic moments, unquestionably intentional.
- The guy playing Blair was playing Bremner playing Blair. This is a good thing.
- Charlie seemed to come off a little too well.
- 2/3 in, Mam as in Jam bombs around deserted Scottish countryside in a battered Land Rover; ends up wailing to herself knee deep in a river. How factually accurate is this?
- Jack Bauer's dad seems to be married to the Queen. Almost expected to see him chasing the Land Rover in a blacked out 4x4.

As a Brit never having paid much attention to the Royal Family I expected to be bored by this. However it struck me that somebody decided that if you can't be for someone, be against everybody. Every character, even dead Diana was painted as flawed. The point was well made.

Google Inconsistency

This is not a standard anti-Google post. I still like Google for the moment, but one thing has been bugging me for a while now - As the google.com basic homepage evolves to become more useful, the UK version lags behind.

google.com

Its no surprise that the top line now reads Web, Images, Video, News, Maps - all very consistent with current trends, and this doesn't matter as my two favored Blog and Groups searches now appear in what amounts to handy AJAXy sub menu that actually carries the search term forward.

google.co.uk

Top line now reads Web, Images, News, Maps, Products, Groups. Perhaps we enjoy shopping more than watching videos in the UK? Nonetheless, Blog search is relegated to the "More" option, which in the behind the times UK yields a static page of many other Google services with no search term passed forward.

Bottom line, if I decide to check Blogs after a web search using the UK version, I have to type the term again or have copied it to paste it. I'd considered momentarily whether these pages might be generated on a per-user basis perhaps rendering this topic redundant, but if that does go on then its ignoring my preference - I don't recall ever clicking Maps or Video. Tell me if i'm wrong though..

The Other Google Toolbar

On to the final annoyance. The multitude of Google services have similar looking text based toolbars at the top, but they are different from App to App.

GMail gives a string of services, some personal, some not, a "my services" button equivalent to "My Account" on some other pages. Calendar is the worst, with no route back to "My Account" anywhere on the page. Beta though so I suppose I can't count it.

The "My Account" aka "my services" page is a great jump-off point. It demonstrates they can easily figure out which services I'm using, so why not just allow me direct access to them from the top of each page?

This giant has produced some of the most useful tools on the network in the past few years, and whilst I can't say I fail to see how this type of inconsistency can happen in what is now a huge company, it surprises me that it doesn't get noticed, and doesn't get fixed, given how frequently updates to these products tend to be pushed.