Is Microsoft Imaging the Springs?
Just yesterday afternoon, as I was heading down the hill to pick up some laundry and mail a couple of books, I spotted a dark blue SUV with some of the damdest equipment bolted to the roof: It had a double rack of what looked like cameras, pointing in all directions. It was driving slowly out of one local cul-de-sac, and at that point I did not get close enough to see what if any logo was on the side of the vehicle.
Twenty minutes later, I had my shirts, had shipped the books, and was climbing back toward home on Star Ranch Road, when I saw the same vehicle coming down toward me. It turned slowly into another cul de sac, but this time I saw the legend clearly on the side: Windows Live Local.
Windows Live Local is obviously Microsoft's competitor to Google Earth, and from a quick glance it works pretty well. Its aerial photos (of my area at least) are several years old, because the shot of my street still shows the boulder-strewn hillside that we bought in August 2002 and did not disturb until July 2003. I have not used Windows Live Local very much, but I have not seen any mention of a "walkaround view" (which is what I would call images captured by a car driving through neighborhoods) especially of red-state territory like Colorado outside the Denver-Boulder perimeter.
So Microsoft is clearly up to something, and it will be interesting to see what they do with it. If its observed route is any guide, the vehicle had already cruised Stanwell Street in front of our house, and when the feature goes live, I suspect that we'll be there along with everything else.