Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

MSN Launches Local Search Beta

By David Worthington, BetaNews

June 20, 2005, 11:24 PM

Microsoft's MSN business unit has planted local roots. Monday, MSN announced a beta of an Internet search service that corrals local business and residential listings together with maps and satellite images.

MSN Local Search follows rivals America Online, Google and Yahoo as the latest purveyor of geographic based Web searches, providing nearby business information, in addition to the local weather and other home-brewed happenings.

MSN blends these local search capabilities together with the company's Virtual Earth technology, a next-generation mapping service that overlays satellite imagery of actual buildings and neighborhoods onto maps in order to aid in directions.

"We remain committed to continuously improving our search service, and today's MSN Local Search beta release is just the beginning. With the addition of MSN Virtual Earth, we are poised to take local search to the next level," said Christopher Payne, corporate vice president for MSN Search.

MSN is the second vendor, after Google, to enhance its mapping services with images taken from the heavens. Google Maps set an industry first when it combined those elements into its service in April.

The MSN Local Search beta is available at http://search.msn.com/local.

Add a Comment (6 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By crashoverride

edited Jun 21, 2005 - 2:10 AM

And all the sheep say.....
Baaaaaaaaa

Score: 0

By Pipewrench

posted Jun 21, 2005 - 1:17 PM

OK hacker.

:) LOL

Talk about a pot calling the kettle black.

You simply cannot be taken seriously with a name taken from a 1995 hacker movie. Hahahahhahaha.

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Jun 21, 2005 - 5:36 PM

Well just look at you, who can take a pipewrench, clearly a plumbiing tool, seriously on technology matters.

Score: 0

By paulstorm

posted Jun 21, 2005 - 1:11 AM

David - have u had a look at the new AOL.com beta? *looks forward to the BetaNews AOL.com expose*

Score: 0

By paulstorm

posted Jun 21, 2005 - 1:10 AM

Perhaps you meant useless local search?

In my tests since it went live this afternoon (leave it to PT to break embargo)...it is pretty useful. I can't wait for the full Virtual Earth implementation...but it holds me over until that near day...

Score: 0

Sep 5 - 8:44 PM ET Mozilla's Aza Raskin: The journey back to Ubiquity

Sep 5 - 7:10 PM ET Red Hat buys virtualization specialist Qumranet

Sep 5 - 7:06 PM ET Analysts: Online news viewers rising as newspaper readership falls

Sep 5 - 6:55 PM ET Where does Sarah Palin stand on technology issues?

Sep 5 - 6:51 PM ET Adobe Flash to deliver NFL games in full

Sep 5 - 4:29 PM ET Exclusive beta invitation from GameTap and BetaNews

Sep 5 - 4:09 PM ET Report: OLPC buy one, give one deal returns

Sep 5 - 3:45 PM ET No ruling yet in TiVo vs. EchoStar patent case

Sep 5 - 3:37 PM ET Google Analytics starts tracking Chrome, with intriguing results

Sep 5 - 2:14 PM ET Comcast challenges FCC's authority in sanction appeal