You're probably familiar with Google's phonebook function; enter a name, city, and state at Google.com, and Google returns whatever phone numbers it has for that name, city, and state. But in addition to that, Google has a whole 'nother set of search offerings for local information called Google Local. Not only that, but Google offers satellite photos of most places in the US -- even here in Raleigh! Not to be outdone, MSN also offers satellite photos of local areas. There's some difference between the two offerings, though.

Today I want to show you some nifty things about Google Local and Windows Live Local, including some pictures of our very own WRAL. At the same time you'll see that even though both services offer much of the same thing, what you sometimes get at street level is a little different. Tomorrow I'll take you on a tour of what happens when the entire Internet community gets hold of satellite photos of the earth (hint: it involves much weirdness.)

A Tour of Google Local

Have you tried Google Local? You can play with it at http://local.google.com . I recommend you use Firefox or Internet Explorer -- funky things can happen when you use Opera. Google Local provides maps and information about the US. You can search for businesses or find driving directions from address-to-address to city-to-city (try Durham NC to Carrboro NC; it won't work without noting the state.) You can even search for businesses in a particular location. (Try soup in Raleigh NC, or Golf in 27604.)

You'll note for all these searches you'll get a map on the right side of the page. Look at the upper right of the map for three buttons: Map, Satellite, and Hybrid. The map is the default view, and the satellite is, obviously, a satellite picture of the area. But hybrid -- now, that's the interesting one. The hybrid shows you a satellite picture of the area, with the streets marked.

Let's go look at WRAL, which is located at 2619 Western Blvd, Raleigh, NC (just paste that address in the Google Local query box.) Here's a screen shot of the results shown in the hybrid format. Notice that not only are roads and highways marked, but recreational areas like Pullen Park are marked as well.



What a view! North Carolina's a beautiful place, huh? Unfortunately you can't make out a lot of details at this height. You can zoom down using the sliders in the upper left corner:


(If you'd like to move the map around, click and drag the image. You'll see that what you're looking at refreshes as you move your mouse. ) As you can see there's a lot more visible here, including WRAL's parking lot and broadcast tower (at a really weird angle.) But note this close up you're no longer seeing the street names. Windows Live Local, which is the local offering from Microsoft, treats its zoom-ins a little differently.

A Tour of Windows Live Local

Windows Live Local is available at http://local.live.com/ . You'll notice that the search box is divided into two parts -- you can look for addreses, or you can look for locations containing your keyword within a specified area. The search is very much like Google local's except the query box is divided. The zoom sliders on the upper-left part of the page are horizontal instead of vertical.

Let's go back to WRAL. Windows Live Local appears to have trouble with commas so let's try the search 2619 Western Blvd Raleigh NC in the second box. You'll notice that instead of three options, you have two view options near the slider on the upper left -- Aerial (sat photos) and Road (a map.) If you chose aerial, there's also a checkbox that allows you to specify that road names should be shown. Here's WRAL from Windows Live Local:



Live Local, you'll notice, marks recreational areas like Pullen Park. If you zoom out you'll see that other areas like Five Points are also denoted in red. Let's zoom all the way in!



Even zoomed in this close, you'll see both road names and traffic flow.

Noting the Differences

Despite the fact that the service is called Windows Live Local, these pictures and the ones from Google Local aren't really live. They don't have dates on them, but sometimes you can get a sense of when they were taken by the trees and the weather....

... or the presence and absence of landmarks. Windows Live Local and Google Local don't always use the same pictures, which is why you should try both services. Let's look at Battleground Avenue in Greensboro on Windows Live Local:



I made a note on the screen (to try that yourself, right-click somewhere on a Windows Live Local map and choose Add Pushpin) that the Krispy Kreme in the picture isn't there anymore! It was torn down quite a while ago. Meanwhile, here's a Google Local picture of the same location:



Google Local has a more recent picture, with the building that's taken the place of the Krispy Kreme. We're a little higher up, though, and that's because while Google Local is more current, it's not as close. Here's what happens when you try to zoom all the way in to Battleground Avenue:



Whoops, we've zoomed in a little too close! In Greensboro Google Local doesn't yet have the close views everywhere that are available in Raleigh.

These local mapping services provide a lot of information in a very easy-to-read view, but as you can tell by these pictures some of the information is a little out of date!

Tomorrow we'll take a look at a bunch of tours, tools, and "mashups" that have been created from mapping services.