On 11 Apr, 02:44, "John Rowland"
wrote:

They've combined it with Multimap.

They have got rid of the 3D functionality - while Google Earth still has 3D
views, Windows Live Local used to allow you to switch at will between 3D map
view and 3D photo view, but this feature is now gone from the web.

They have got rid of the old vector map they used, and replaced it with
raster maps, presumably the old Multimap ones. While I don't dislike the new
maps, we used to have the choice of vector maps in WLL and raster maps in
Multimap, now we have no choice. Also, the maps are no longer draggable
which makes them a pain to navigate.

All in all, they have got rid of a lot of useful functionality and I'm not
sure why. We are basically left with Multimap, with the Birds Eye views
taken over from WLL, and the rest of WLL has been binned.


Why has it happened? Simple, Multimap was bought by Microsoft last
December.

I must admit I predominantly used WLL (or Live Maps as the service
seemed to be renamed) for the Bird's Eye view facility, which is
retained here. As you say though it's a shame to lose the choice of
using a different service. Google Maps do continue to provide vector
maps. Incidentally whilst Multimap (and Streetmap) use A-Z style
raster mapping in London, if you look elsewhere you'll see that they
use different mapping to cover other cities such as Leeds - which is I
think actually vector mapping, though it doesn't offer the same ease
of zooming in and out that the old WLL maps did (which also allowed
you to do this with your mouse's scrollwheel if you had such a thing).

Also, incidentally, the Multimap mapping is proving quite draggable to
me (and it works in map view, aerial view and Bird's Eye view modes).