Thread: www.live.com

I had a look at Microsofts new search engine www.live.com I'm not sure how long it's been out, I saw an article on it in a recent newspaper lying around at work.

Searching in the local tab of the search engine brings up a map with all the search results for your geographical area marked with GPS style "pushpins".

Comandeering the map from there, I was able to navigate the globe and zoom in to quite a detailed level for tracks in Victoria. I also had the option to mark routes with "pushpins" and create routes with www.whereis.com.au style driving directions, though the MS maps are much better than the whereis maps as you can get track names without having to zoom in to 100 meters.

You can switch from mapping to aerial photography of the area too (Google Earth style mapping).

I've only had a brief play with the features, but it looks like it will become a very handy tool in trip planning and preperation. If you're planning something with friends, you can create a route and email it to them with all the track notes, from there they can zoom in & out & navigate around.

Worth a look.

You can bet.