Microsoft Live Maps v2 = Google Earth in a Browser

http://maps.live.com

Microsoft released Live Maps v2 on 2007-10-16. I meant to blog about it a while back but did not have the time. This release, codename Gemini, has a lot of nifty features, one of which is the ability to view 3d maps inside a browser (a la Google Earth) — and it works for both IE and Firefox, which I assume it should work for Macs as well (but I don't use Macs so let me know).



Other cool features include:

• Party Maps = 1-Click Directions. Display directions to get to a destination from multiple starting points to a single end point. Great for party invites.
• Route Around Traffic. Replot directions based on traffic.
• Data Import. Import data in GeoRSS, GPX, KML and mashup with Virtual Earth.
• Birds Eye views in 3D. Birds Eye view has always been unique in Virtual Earth, and it's even more useful to see it in the 3D context, which superimposes the image taken by real-live camera on top of the perspective 3d view.
• 3D Tours and Videos of Collections. While Google requires users to throw in 400 bucks a year to get the Google Earth Professional account in order to record a video of tours, you can do it in Virtual Earth for free at 640x480 resolution.
• 3D Modelling. Microsoft partnered with Dassault to allow user-generated 3D buildings using the 3DVIA Technology. Download 3DVIA Technology preview (PC only)
• Enhanced Details Page. Business listings show specific data about the business. For example, when search for a data, also list their gender, age, medical school, year of graduation, etc.

Details of the release can be read on Microsoft Virtual Earth / Live Maps' official blog

©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Microsoft Beats Google for Facebook Deal / WSJ

WSJ: 2007-10-24T16:48-04:00: Microsoft Inks Deal with Facebook

Wall Street Journal reports moments ago that Microsoft just agreed to invest $240 million for a minority stake at Facebook (Google). The companies have discussed a valuation for Facebook as high as $15 billion.

Google Vice President Tim Armstrong declined to comment on any Google discussions with Facebook.

User distribution for social networking sites by the end of 2007 - Research Data
Source: DataMonitor (Google)

• 35% = Asian
• 28% = Europe + Middle East +e Africa
• 25% = North America
• 12% = Caribbean

Related

• Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook / 2007-10-25 / New York Times
• Microsoft Pays $240 Million for Stake in Facebook / 2007-10-24 / Bloomberg
• Google News Launches Facebook Application / 2007-10-20 / Slashdot

SML Copyright Notice

©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Open Content Alliance = Books + Universal Web Search / Slashdot

The Internet Archive, whose main claim to fame is the Wayback Machine, designed to archive the internet's web history, has created a new project: the Open Content Alliance. Its purpose is to open the nation's library collections to universal web search.

A number of major library systems, including the Boston Public Library and Smithsonian, have refused to sign up with competing ventures by Microsoft and Google because they do not provide for universal access to digitized books. These commercial ventures prohibit books being accessed by competing search engines. So far, 80 libraries and research institutions have signed on with Open Content Alliance.

They must pay for the scanning of their books while Google and Microsoft offset that cost for their participating institutions

Source: Internet Archive Challenges Google / 2007-10-22 / Slashdot

Related News

• Libraries Decline Offers to Place Books on Google and Microsoft Search / 2007-10-23 / Search Engine Roundtable: A New York Times article discusses the Open Content Alliance, an initiative to put books online for everyone's consumption regardless of affiliation. ...
• Freeing books and other digital things / 2007-10-22 / ZDNet Blogs

Full detail of OCA on OpenLibrary.org

SML Copyright Notice

©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Live Search 411 = Microsoft's answer to GOOG-411

Highlights

• Call 1-800-CALL-411 for free from any phone
• Connect directly to businesses for free
• Share listings with friends
• Receive SMS links maps, driving directions and traffic conditions by saying "text me the info"
• Hear current weather and forecasts
• Find movie showtimes and get tickets
• Search by business name, type and narrow listings by city, neighborhood, or street

MP3 audio demos

• Ice cream search
• Movie showtimes and tickets
• Share listings with friend

More information

• Live Search 411 Official site
• Microsoft Live Search Official Blog: Announcing Live Search 411 (1-800-CALL-411)
• Microsoft Press Release: Microsoft Releases New Search Services for Internet and Mobile Customers: Latest releases complete fall updates for Liver Search service, including, voice search and location-aware technology

Related Google

• Google GOOG-411 (1-800-GOOG-411)
• Google Groups: goog411
• YouTube: 1-800-GOOG-411: Google's 411 service

SML Copyright Notice

©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

Pattern Recognition = Key to Fight (HIV + Spam)

Source: Business Week: 2007-10-01: print edition. pp.68, 70

David Heckerman (Google), a physician as well as a PhD in computer science at Microsoft Research, was doing research on better spam-blocking when he noted that those same technology can be applied to blocking HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.

From Heckerman’s perspective, HIV is like a cagey spammer. After attacking a cell, it injects its own genetic material and proceeds (much like a spam jockey who has commandeered as an unprotected computer) to manufacture thousands of copies of the virus.

The trouble? Complexity and mutations. HIV-infected cells often wear mutated nameplates that immune systems haven’t learned to read. In this sense, vaccines have been like faulty spam filters, the ones that block e-mails promoting “Viagra” while letter ads for “V1agra” scoot through.

But Heckerman is upbeat. He argues that by revving up the computing power and blending thousands of new variable, researchers are making progress. One key, he says, is to map the patterns of mutation and incorporate them into medicine. These mutations, he says, appear to vary according to a person’s immune system. If researchers can find the patterns, they’ll be closer to making effective vaccines. Yet if they conclude that the mutations are utterly random, then “we’re in big trouble,” says Heckerman.

Read the full article here:

Business Week: 2007-10-01: Info Tech: Using Spam Blockers To Target HIV, Too: A Microsoft researcher and his team make a surprising new assault on the AIDS epidemic.

Related SML

• SML AIDS (org)


• SML Pro Blog: AIDS


• SML Pro Blog: Pattern Recognition = Key to fight (HIV + Spam);

SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.

2007 = 50 Years of Helvetica

Helvetica lovers rejoice!

1. 50 Years of Helvetica is currently being shown at MoMA. You'll get plenty of time to hike up to midtown before the show ends on March 31, 2008.


2. Helvetica, the film.


3. Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface, the book.


4. Linotype is having a Helvetica NOW Design Contest, the poster design contest.
   
   The winners will be selected by popular vote. The voting will be carried out online at www.Linotype.com/helveticaNOW starting in mid-October 2007. The winners will be announced in the January 2008 issue of the LinoLetter.
   
   Prizes
   Linotype will offer prizes to the first three winners. Together the prizes will be worth more than €15,000.
   
   Deadline
   Submissions will be accepted from July 4–October 4, 2007. Entries will be made public once voting begins and not before that date.
   
   Details

From the MoMA website:

2007 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Max Miedinger and Edouard Hoffmann's design Helvetica, the most ubiquitous of all typefaces. Widely considered the official typeface of the twentieth century, Helvetica communicates with simple, well-proportioned letterforms that convey an aesthetic clarity that is at once universal, neutral, and undeniably modern. In honor of the first typeface acquired for MoMA's collection, the installation presents posters, signage, and other graphic material demonstrating the variety of uses and enduring beauty of this design classic. As a special feature in the exhibition, an excerpt of Gary Hustwit's documentary Helvetica reveals the typeface as we experience it in an everyday context.

If you are a typographer, you owe yourself to visting these events and shopping for these goods.

If you think that Helvetica is just the same as Arial, stop judging typefaces on screen and observe the beauty of type and scrutinize the difference when they are offset-printed.

Also, please stop thinking that Arial is created by Microsoft and thus bad. Arial is designed by Monotype and is provided as an alternative that is a sans-serif that has the same metric values as Helvetica without the hefty licensing premiums for Helvetica.

Another point in mind: Microsoft has commissioned a lot of excellent typefaces, by many renowned type designers--Matthew Carter, for example. Check out Microsoft Typography.