Windows Live Local is Kind of Junky
Here’s my first impression of Windows Live Local:
1. Dumb naming/branding. "Windows Live Local" doesn’t even parse for me, and they URL they chose (http://local.live.com) is a little thick-headed, too. I will never remember it. At one point, Microsoft was supposed to be about "information at your fingertips," so as a user, what I need here is less clever family branding and more mnemonics.
2. It doesn’t look better or have more features than either ours or Google’s comparable product. In particular I found myself missing the minimap that you get with the new Y! maps.
3. It was easy for me to fall into a usability dead end that forced me to have to re-load the page. This is the AJAX equivalent of the blue screen of death, as far as I’m concerned, since it lost all my data.
4. (Most importantly) The actual local search I did returned fewer results (far fewer, in some cases) from Microsoft than from Y! local maps search.
We eagerly await the release of version 3.0.
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You are absolutely right. The integration of yahoo maps with it’s yellow pages is awesome. Google local and MS Live Local don’t even come closer. But hype generated by these two is more than that of yahoo.
I think you guys hate competition. In my opinion Windows Live is Super Cool .What a lovely bird eye view which niether Yahoo nor Google has.
New ideas about directional views , locate me based on IP address…
what you say ?
i hopr you learn from your boss rather than mocking about it.
Hey, if you want mockery, I can make that happen for you, but this is pointed criticism, which is different.
The bird’s eye view is cute, but it doesn’t do a lot for me when I need to find a chinese restaurant.
I’d like to hear the mockery happen, personally.
let the local hatin begin..
let the local hatin begin..
“locate me based on IP address” has always failed for me, at home and at work. I have tried it a few times so far.
I’ve tried to tone it down a smidge since I wrote this, but this post is what I refer to as mockery. http://mcmanus.typepad.com/grind/2005/06/why_the_yahoo_m.html
Windows Live LocalLive
Microsoft lauched Windows Live Local today
First reactionits looks exactly like Google Maps
While I havent played with it much yet, Jeffrey McManus summed up many of the critiques Ive read when he wrote, …
Jeffrey - you’re out to lunch. the Yahoo flash map is a joke compared to this windows live local. 1) i hate your flash - why should i wait for that crap to load?, 2) live local is much better for directions, multiple searching and sending people where you want to meet (you can click on the thing), and 3) the imagery is way cooler. Yahoo is a pretender in this space - google and microsoft are the ones duking it out. if i were the yahoo guiys, i’d stick to the hollywood “new media” stuff and leave technology to Google and the softies.
dorby:
the world would be simple if every race had two horses, but it never works out quite that easily. the flash-based nature of Y!maps is interesting; while competitors spent energy trying to tweak performance and functionality out of javascript, Y! took the easy route and used a reliable, stable, mature technology (flash). kudos.
the question is, aside from simplified technical underpinnings, what value-adds does Y!maps bring to the fold? live traffic is a value add. where are the rest of the value adds?
jeff: i’ve re-ammended my post on my site, more accurately paraphrasing your post.