Microsoft is fond of saying “me too, me too!”

In the beginning, we mapped with MapQuest or Yahoo Maps or their ilk. We’d enter an address and get back a zoomable, pan-able vector map. Or we’d enter “from” and “to” addresses and get back a turn-by-turn driving plan. Some of these vector mapping services had features to show local businesses or, now and then, view satellite images of the area.

More recently, Google outdid every generally-available mapping interface on the web with Google Maps, chock-full of draggable scrolling, clever pushpins, a rich API interface, and of course a beta tag. Before long they added satellite images. (As an aside, it puzzles me why they used such old imagery. For example, I always pop in my address and check out the view from above. In Google Maps it’s a black and white lo-res image, while on the other hand, at GlobeXplorer I get a hi-res color image — not for free, of course, but my point is that better is availabe. Google has excellent hi-res color imagery of some areas and I hope they extend this coverage.) Google has also recently added a hybrid viewing mode where the satellite imagery is overlaid with roads and whatnot from the vector maps.

So, as things settled down and Google finished digesting the online mapping world, they released Google Earth, built on Keyhole, which they bought a while back. In its basic form, Google Earth is free and, simply put, amazing. Plus and Pro versions are also available, for $20 and $400, respectively (the Pro price is per year). Plus adds GPS integration and annotation features, while Pro adds layers and overlays, along with the ability to pay more for additional modules (flythrough movie making, premium printing, GIS import, etc.).

Microsoft, already quaking in their clogs over the fact that Google is likely to buy Bill Gates before long (or more likely, build a better one), has released Microsoft Virtual Earth. I wasn’t expecting much, but it’s not too shabby. It has a satellite view that smoothly integrates the overhead imagery with vector bit, roads, parks, labels, etc. much like Google Maps’ hybrid view. I did not see a way to turn the integration off, however.

Micrsoft had already swallowed up Terraserver but this Virtual Earth, while boldly ripping off Google Maps, is a welcome addition to the mapping fray. It’s good to see this technology progressing in a publicly-available way. There’s much more that is being done with mapping in the private and government sectors, but Google Maps, Google Earth, and Microsoft Virtual Earth are leaps and bounds ahead of what we were using only a year ago.

Microsoft Virtual Earth seen here.