Round 1: Google Maps v. MSN Virtual Earth
Lately, Google and Yahoo have been unveiling competing products in a battle for Internet users. After one company unveils a new offering, the other will often come out with a similar product shortly thereafter. Well, it appears that Microsoft is looking to join into the fray - and I'm not talking about the dueling lawsuits between Microsoft and Google over Kai-Fu Lee.
The latest battleground involves satellite maps with Microsoft releasing a beta version of MSN Virtual Earth over the weekend. I really like the overlay of street names and landmarks over these images.
To no surprise, Google Maps now offers this feature as well. I'm not sure who was first and who was second, but congrats to both. In Google, the hybrid button triggers the overlay of the map onto the satellite image.
The big difference between the two images - besides the fact that one is in black and white and the other is in color - is that although both maps include a label for the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, only one of them actually displays the Bellagio. Considering that the Bellagio opened in 1998, that should give you a hint of the vintage of Microsoft's satellite images. So, if you are leaving for Las Vegas, stick with Google for now.
However, MSN Virtual Earth isn't without its merits. For selected locations within featured cities (that's just a polite way of saying for isolated localities), Microsoft offers much higher resolution images. Here's a view of the World Bank in Washington, D.C., home of Paul Wolfowitz.
In Google Maps, the degree of resolution is much lower. Did you notice that both maps identify which streets are one-way?
Google takes first place by a wide margin. Google Maps feature fresher satellite images and higher resolution images for more areas, including international destinations. MSN Virtual Earth takes second place. However, it should really be called Virtual USA and not Virtual Earth. For selected cities, Microsoft offers higher resolution images. However, these images are not available for many parts of the USA. Also, because Microsoft relies on the US Geological Survey for its images, the Virtual Earth feature doesn't includes close-up satellite images of Europe, Asia or even Canada. Still, I imagine this is just a first step for Microsoft and that it will spend its way to bringing forward a more competitive product in the future. As for Yahoo, I'm surprised that they hasn't upgraded their maps to be competitive with Google and now Microsoft. That may just be a timing issue. We'll have to wait and see.
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Google Maps Goes Extraterrestrial
In honor of the first manned Moon landing, Google presents Google Moon, a version of the Google Maps interface that plots the Apollo moon landing sites on a photo image of the moon.
You can zoom in and zoom out, but if you look too closely, you'll discover that the moon is made of cheese. ;-)
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FindLaw Shutting Down Free Firm Sites; Justia Offers Free Migration Solution for FindLaw's Law Firm Web Site Clients
Yesterday, Chris Fontes, the Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at FindLaw, notified law firms that FindLaw was shutting down their law firm web sites. In his e-mail, Fontes explained,
"For the last several years, FindLaw has been hosting a Web site for you at no charge.... Because of technical and business constraints, we are no longer able to provide this service. We are writing to inform you that this site will be removed from our servers on August 1, 2005."
Since you only have 2 1/2 weeks to find a new online home for your law firm, here's a checklist on how to smoothly handle your web site eviction.
- Make a Back-Up Copy of All the Content on Your Web Site. Building a new web site takes time. You need a paragraph to describe your law firm. Another paragraph covering your own experience and achievements. You may also want to display some articles that you have authored just to showcase your knowledge and areas of expertise. Preparing all these elements for a web site can be a time consuming. However, if you've already done it once before, you should take full advantage of your prior work. Either copy and paste the content from your FindLaw FirmSite to a Microsoft Word document, or save each individual web page (control-S) from the web browser itself. Now you can refer to your web site even after FindLaw evicts all the free law firm web sites from their servers.
- Sign-Up for a New Search Engine Optimized Law Firm Web Site. Justia offers Free Search Engine Optimized Web Sites for lawyers or law firms. Their free package includes:
- Template Web Design
- Search Engine Optimized Pages, covering one practice area, one city and one state
- Firm Home Page
- Firm Profile Page
- Firm Location Page
- Practice Area Profiles
- Attorney Profiles
- Web Resources Page
- Legal Articles Section
- W3C Web Standards Design & Layout
- U.S. 508 and W3C's Web Accessibility Guidelines
- Set-Up Your New Justia Law Firm Web Site. Law firms that have an existing web site really have an advantage here. By copying-and-pasting their content from their old site to their new one, law firms can quickly launch their new online presence. Here's an actual free web site built by one of Justia's clients:
Does your existing free (or even paid) web site appear as stylish as the one above? With free web building tools and free web site designs, Justia offers FindLaw's Firm Site clients an easy migration path to a new search engine optimized law firm web site from Justia. Start building your new search engine optimized web site today by visiting http://freedom.justia.com/.
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Google Toolbar for Firefox Released
Hi Friends,
Google has released a beta of its tool bar for Firefox... and it works on the Mac version of Firefox (as well Windows). Right on time too :)
The Google Toolbar for Firefox! -- Some more competition for Yahoo!'s Toolbar for Firefox (or just use both)
Google also released some other Firefox extensions, including a Google Send to Phone for sending text messages of Web page content to a phone number (I think this one is sponsored by the phone companies...) and an extentsion for using Google Suggest in the Firefox search box (it gives suggestions of using the stem text your entered (see previous post).
Here is the Google Blog post about the Firefox toolbar. I am sure there will be more browser search tools, some of which will work even closer with Google Desktop... in the near future.
Peace - Tim
:: Search & Destroy, Nude & Rude - The Best of Iggy Pop by Iggy Pop
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