Site of the Week: Virtual Earth

Ok, ok so my Site of the Week feature has been a little lagging (in fact there are only a couple sites in the list). Here's a doosie!

I know a few MSN TV 2ers have been trying to find a mapping tool like Google Maps that works with the box. While I like Google Maps, I LOVE Virtual Earth. Why? Because it works with MSN TV 2!

Here's my original post from :

MSN just launched their MSN Virtual Earth site! Congrats to the Virtual Earth team!

It's basically a Google Maps competitor, but as usual, MSN has a few tricks up its sleeves:

1. LocateMe - this neat feature installs a little widget that figures out where you are by your wifi signal. I absolutely love it.

2. Blog It - Integrated blogging to your MSN Space of your Scratch Pad. I'm still playing with this to see if it's useful...so far nada.

3. It works with MSN TV 2. Google Maps causes the box to crash while Virtual Earth runs very well on MSN TV 2 (a little slow on dialup, but then again, what isn't slow on dialup these days?) About the only thing that doesn't work on MSN TV 2 is the click and drag feature (which may work with a USB mouse attached...I'll have to try).

There's even a fan site setup that's ready to hack VE and make it do cool/fun things (hopefully even more useful than some of the Google Maps remixes that we've seen). Link.

UPDATE: For MSN TV 2 users, the mouse works great with this site. The scroll whell can zoom the map in and out and scroll the results and scratch pad windows. You should search in the scrunched view (the non-resized page), but then resize the page to access features like Aerial photos). The LocateMe can be used (just scroll way down in the panel that appears and click "IP Address"). It doesn't work as well as the PC version where you install an application, but it's nice nonetheless.

MSN Local Search works with MSN TV 2!

Google Maps doesn't exactly work well on MSN TV 2 (it usually crashes any box running build 5128/9.8). However, MSN has just released MSN Local Search. It provides aerial sattelite and standard map views as well as great zooming and scrolling capabilities without page reloading (courtesy of Javascript). There are a few minor features that aren't working with 5128/9.8, but should be working as soon as we ship our next release later this summer.

Go MSN Search team!

Yesterland

Interesting site of the week:

A Visit to Yesterland - The Discontinued Disneyland

If you have fond memories of Disneyland (bring back Rocket Rods and Captain EO!), this is the place for you. Yesterland catalogues discontinued attractions from the Magic Kingdom.

Answers.com

Answers.com - Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and much more

Very nice site that answers questions (rather than giving links to what may be the answer like at google).

Site of the Week!

Here some of what MSN is working on: MSN Sandbox

In keeping with a the new feature, I'd like to welcome everyone who has a favorite site to let me know what it is (especially if it looks and runs great on MSN TV 2!). I'll evaluate them and choose them at the end of every week or so. If you also have a favorite book, CD, DVD, electronic device, etc. let me know and I'll consider it for the "...Of the Week" category.