David Emery Online

Microsoft is still Microsoft

8 November 2006

Continuing on the Microsoft theme from yesterday comes an announcement that just shows how big and disparate Microsoft really is; it’s amazing how on one hand it can get something so right while simultaneously being the same old Microsoft we love to hate.

They’ve just launched a new version of Virtual Earth that includes detailed 3D imagery and buildings. The amount of ways they’ve tried to balls up this nice feature addition is quite amazing really – only Microsoft are this good at being bad.

Firstly, they’ve included billboard ads in amongst the 3D buildings. I’ve got no problem with this – in fact, I applaud that they’re actually bothering to have a business model for this service; most people these days don’t seem to bother. However, they’re claiming that the ads are there for realism – so that the world is more realistic.

Seriously. That’s what they said.

Secondly, obviously this is a complete rip-off of Google Earth – but then, it’s not like them to do something original. That said, it is technically better then the Google alternative – it features a much better set of 3D models, which have much more detail and full texture mapping. On the flip side, it’s still US only and doesn’t contain nearly as much data as Google Earth does; this mostly being down to Google’s open platform where anyone can create models for it.

The third – and most important – point is what it runs on: Windows PCs running Internet Explorer. Sure, the Windows bit isn’t a surprise, but the Live team (and Microsoft in general) had been getting more multi-browser compatible in recent times, with Firefox being supported in all of their recent online products.

However, with the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft have something to play for in the browser market. I think we’re going to see an increasing amount of interesting looking online products coming out of Microsoft that will only run on Internet Explorer, and probably only version 7. It’s a great mechanism for Microsoft to boost Internet Explorer usage by leveraging it’s other online departments.

The worrying thing is that it’s probably going to work.

One of the current rumours going round the net is that Microsoft is working on a true online office suite – versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint that run in-browser.

Will that be Internet Explorer’s killer app?