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"Google wants you" to help it win the mapping war, John Hanke, the director of Google Earth and Google Maps, told a crowd of location-obsessed technologists Tuesday at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose.
As the virtual Internet becomes ever more closely tied to real world locations, digital maps have become the new battleground between Google and Microsoft.
"It's a microcosm of the search space, with the major companies competing for users and innovation," said Greg Sterling, of Sterling Market Intelligence.
Microsoft threw down the gauntlet last year when it announced it would add geometrically accurate, photorealistic cities to its mapping platform, known as Virtual Earth. So far, Microsoft has created 3-D imagery of 73 cities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and plans 500 by the end of next year.
On Tuesday, Google announced it would add a two-dimensional "street view" to five cities in Google Maps, letting users navigate the streets of San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver.
Google also encourages people to use a free architectural program to add 3-D buildings to Google Earth, but it does not have an automated way to create virtual cities like Microsoft does. Hanke said users have added tens of millions of data points to Google Earth, but that a complete replica of the planet would need billions of contributions.
Google street view uses data from Immersive Media, and is similar to a "street-side"
view that Microsoft rolled out in Seattle and San Francisco a year ago.
But Erik Jorgensen, Microsoft's general manager of search and mapping, said Microsoft found far more people use a perspective called "Bird's Eye," which offers equally detailed information from a slightly higher altitude.
Based on those insights, Microsoft has expanded its "Bird's Eye" view to cover major metropolitan areas.
James Greiner, general manager of MapQuest, which is owned by AOL, said a survey of users showed fewer than one out of five map users were choosing to view advanced imagery. He said MapQuest is concentrating on helping people make everyday decisions, like choosing a commuting route that avoided construction.
Yahoo is also focusing on including more helpful details, such as when a road is only available to
emergency traffic, and on the quickest routes.
Jim Schoonmaker, president and CEO of Everyscape, a Waltham, Mass., company that is also building virtual cities, said that immersive environments will be embraced by ordinary people once they are easier to use. Both Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth 3-D require people to download software.
Schoonmaker said Everyscape, which will launch its cities this fall, will run in a browser and allow people to upload virtual representations of the interiors of buildings, including stores, restaurants and apartment rentals
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