Microsoft launches 'Virtual Earth' beta

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This isn't some nefarious scheme...

The data MS is using seems to be Digital Ortho Quarter Quads from roughly 1990. The USGS (which is their source) has a complete set (I think) for the whole US from that year. My guess is that MS built it using the latest complete dataset they could get their hands upon. Sure, there's better data for individual areas (I'm currently hosting 2003 imagery for all of WV, for instance), the data is pretty piecemeal for the whole country.

Google, for instance, uses different levels of data depending on what they can get their hands upon. Do a search for Morgantown, WV in Google and you'll see decent data for the town itself, really, really, really coarse data for the surrounding areas.

So at least in THIS particular instance, MS isn't being deliberatly snide... they're just using woefully out of date data.

I'll leave it to the individuals to judge which is worse...

Posted by: flafone   Posted on: 07/26/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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