Photosynth Could Spark Virtual Earth Comeback
Over the last few years many of the major real estate search sites have moved over to Google Maps from Microsoft’s Virtual Earth as their mapping API of choice (Redfin being the most recent notable defector). HomeGain, Trulia, Homefinder, Estately and others all use Google Maps. But, interestingly, both the #1 and #2 sites; Realtor.com and Zillow, are still Microsoft clients.
Given that, they will likely be interested to hear that Microsoft has announced that they are now rolling in Photosynth technology into the Virtual Earth platform.
Photosynth is a platform that grew out of Microsoft Live Labs (see Next Generation Virtual Tours) and allows for amazing 3D environments (”Synths”) to be stitched together out of 2D photographs.
From the press release:
Photosynth software analyzes digital photographs and generates a 3-D model by “stitching” the photos together. These models, or “synths,” can now be viewed using Silverlight technology across multiple platforms. Virtual Earth brings together features, functionality and content that help consumers, businesses, citizens and governments bring location to life. It helps businesses and governments share location-based information, build better connections with consumers or citizens, and helps organizations make better operational decisions. With the integration of Photosynth into Virtual Earth customers will be able to create detailed 3-D views of anything from places to products and from hotels to homes.
Most recently, it was used to create an immersive view of President Obama’s inauguration on CNN.com called The Moment. (If you haven’t seen it, go check it out – it really is pretty amazing)
Rolling Photosynth in Virtual Earth has some pretty big implications for real estate as one could imagine a developer could take widely available assets (listing photos) and roll them into a pretty nifty 3D representation of a property that’s for sale.
You can see a sample “house Synth” on the Microsoft Virtual Earth site. (Click on the sales sheet for a really slick representation of what’s possible)
Cool factor aside. Whether or not this is a big enough feature to get some of these other sites to switch to VE, that’s another question all together.
Update: Here’s Microsoft’s video on the integration.
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Galen | May 7, 2009 | Reply
Google maps are as good or better technically and the price difference between Google Maps and Microsoft is just too great.
The dumb money – the money tied up in board meetings and memo-driven decision making uses Microsoft Maps. The smart money scrimps where it can.
Travis | May 8, 2009 | Reply
yeah right now companies are going to want to efficiency and cost cutting. This new type of imaging is going to be amazing though.
Kori Covrigaru | May 9, 2009 | Reply
VE doesn’t have a flash API. This is our biggest barrier when considering VE vs. Google or Yahoo! Hopefully this changes soon.
Laguna Niguel Real Estate | May 9, 2009 | Reply
I’ve used this software. With a user-friendly visual aspect and the coolest thing is that a bottom-right icon allows you to have a synth occupy your entire browser window. Also, you can improve the view further by putting your browser into full-screen mode with your F11 function key.
Mike Gallagher | May 12, 2009 | Reply
I agree with the first few comments. As a developer of online search tools my primary concern is cost, and Google has Microsoft beat.
I think it’s a very slick app, but Microsoft offers an API similar to Google I’ll probably never use it.
Jason Barone | May 19, 2009 | Reply
I didn’t like Photosynth when I tried it. I think they still have a lot of work to do if they want their products to catch on. It was a pain just to get everything installed to where I could actually view the photosynth website, I believe they required you to download their software bundle which contained not one, but TWO programs…
MS products seem too bulky and bloated for the average person. I have an excellent computer setup going which has never crashed once on me in like a year, then I installed Virtual Earth and it crashes….
Google is way ahead of MS. Better APIs, better integration, easier to use, better UI, lower cost.
I’m willing to bet there’s a ton of companies out there that only use Virtual Earth because of their “bird’s eye” view pictures. When Google gets this, it’s going to be game over.