微软地图推出新功能挑战谷歌

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Microsoft, Google Take Maps In New Direction The battle between Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. has shifted into new territory: a race to see who can make online maps that make people feel like they're really there.
         
        　　After lagging behind Google Maps, Microsoft this week unveiled an overhaul of its Bing Maps Web site that supplements the traditional bird's eye view of cities and other locations with rich photographs on the ground. In addition to the street-level images pioneered by Google Maps that let people 'move' along the roads pictured, Microsoft's technology stitches together images uploaded by users into three-dimensional photo collages. The technology, called Photosynth, lets users post on Bing Maps interior shots of everything from restaurants to museums to hotels.
         
        　　The Microsoft technology and similar efforts by Google are further signs that online maps are evolving from a digital version of an atlas into something more akin to a videogame. Both Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., and Google, Mountain View, Calif., are experimenting with a variety of tools that make hunting for locations far more immersive.
         
        　　Having better maps gives Microsoft and Google more than just bragging rights. It also potentially gives companies who use their Internet maps -- such as hotels and restaurants -- a new tool for attracting business and standing out from competitors.
         
        　　'Bing has pushed what Google was doing a step forward,' says Greg Sterling, an analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence.
         
        　　John Hanke, vice president of Google maps, said Microsoft is playing 'catch up' with most of its new map features, pointing out that Google also lets people post images that show up in Google maps in the locations they were shot.
         
        　　The photo collages on Bing, which Microsoft calls 'synths,' go beyond ordinary panoramic images that allow people to pivot around a street scene from a single fixed point. Users can create the synths with a conventional digital camera by snapping dozens or even hundreds of shots of the interior of, say, a furniture store, from a variety of vantage points.
         
        　　Consumers can then use a free program from Microsoft that stitches the images together in such a way that they can experience a crude simulation of moving around inside the store by clicking around the photo collage with their mouse. Anybody can then make the synth accessible through Bing Maps, represented by a pin icon on the spot where the images were shot.
         
        　　微软地图推出新功能 挑战谷歌 微软与谷歌之间的争斗已经转移到了新的领域。它们在比赛，看谁能够制作出让人感觉身临其境的在线地图。
         
        　　此前落后于谷歌地图的微软，在本周公布了一项针对必应地图的升级计划，使这个网站在城市与其他地点传统鸟瞰图的基础上，再增加丰富的地面图片。除了谷歌首创的让人们沿着被拍摄街道“走动”的街景影像，微软的技术还把用户上传的各种影像拼成三维图片集合。通过这种被称为“Photosynth”的技术，用户可以把他们在餐馆、博物馆和酒店等地拍摄到的内部图片上传到必应地图上。
         
        　　微软这一技术和谷歌采取的类似措施进一步说明，在线地图正在从地图的数码版，演化为一种更接近于电子游戏的东西。无论是华盛顿州雷德蒙德的微软还是加州山景城的谷歌，都在试验各种工具，让查找地点变得比现在要逼真得多。
         
        　　把地图做得更好，不仅是让微软和谷歌拥有自夸的资本，还有可能让使用其地图的公司──如酒店和餐馆──获得一个招揽生意、从竞争对手中胜出的新手段。
         
        　　市场营销研究公司Sterling Market Intelligence公司分析师斯特林说，必应把谷歌所做的往前推进了一步。
         
        　　谷歌地图副总裁汉克表示，微软多数新的地图功能都是在追赶谷歌。他指出，在谷歌地图上，人们也可以上传影像显示在拍摄地点的相应位置。
         
        　　被微软称为“synth”的必应图片集合，已经超越了那种让人从单个固定点环视街景的普通全景式影像。要创建“synth”，用户可以用一般的数码相机，从多个位置拍摄比如说某个家具店的内部，拍上几十张甚至几百张，。
         
        　　然后用户可以用微软的一款免费程序软件，把这些照片拼接起来；拼接好了之后，用鼠标点击图片集合的各处，要能够粗略体验到在家具店里面四处参观的感觉。任何人都可以把这个“synth”放在必应地图上供人浏览，地图中照片拍摄地点上会有一个回形针图标显示。