VirtualEarth.com Is Live

Hey! Just saw this. VirtualEarth.com from MSN is now live and in color.

"Welcome to MSN® Virtual EarthTM! Virtual Earth combines mapping and local search to put the answers to your search questions in a geographical context. To do this, Virtual Earth combines MSN Search with the latest in mapping to create a new Web application built on Microsoft technology." A few things:

It's definitely in beta. The Help menu is annoying; in fact, all the submenus are annoying because they open in a pop-up window right in the middle of the map. Blech.

"You can use the Locate me feature to center the map on your current location. The Locate me feature uses the Wi-Fi signals near your computer or the Internet protocol address of your computer to determine your location." However, you'll have to download and install something called Location Finder. Just click on "Locate Me" on the toolbar; I wasn't able to link to it directly (see above).

I love the idea of the Scratch Pad. "After you search for an address or a category with Local Search, use the Scratch Pad to save and share the search results listings that are most interesting to you."

The Virtual Earth developer resource center looks to be an interesting site; nothing much up there at the moment. I'm looking forward to diddling around with this.

Related:

• Step By Step IE Favorites Tutorial: Create a favorite in Microsoft Internet Explorer with my free Internet Explorer tutorial. I would definitely add Virtual Earth.