google maps vs. Microsoft live search

[kaoss_11]

i like how live will reroute for you

[ghostridr]

both.. live search for nav., gas station pricing, restaurants, and services search while on the go. Google maps for it's "street view" feature when I need land marks for pre-arrival nav.

[jlh11364]

I use both of the above and also amazegps and google Navigator. Google Navigator locks on to sats the fastest. I agree that live search has some strange steps to add your current location to a search. I would like a program that uses my current location and then lets me either find a business from there or give me directions from that spot. Both do it, but take a step or two to do that . I would love basic command that gives a couple of choices that allows one to do that. Btw, amaze works very well for navigation, but takes even more steps to do what you want, but is a fully n/c program

[JAVIERBOND007]

I use google maps only, iam very happy with it...

[skeegcpp]

i've been using the updated version of livesearch for everyting but directions with no problems. and using google maps for directions, like syrguy1969 said. with the livesearch update there's a birds eye view(i guess to compare to street view on google maps). but they both do go excellent with eachother. now if i had to choose one, i wud choose livesearch cuz i can search for businesses easier while driving and stuff. plus the GPS loads WAY faster then the older version. IMO
cant 4get about the additional features in livesearch(categories, maps, traffic, and stuff)

[syrguy1969]

I stand by my statement that I think they work well together and compliment each other on a device, but if forced to chose (which I think was the object of this thread) I agreee with skeegcpp, Live Search is the one I would chose, and for the same reasons..buisness, movie + gas look-up are very useful additions to a mapping app!!!

(good thing we don't have to chose though......isn't it?)

[gianthobbit]

thanks for all the great feeback guys, I am not convinced to give win live search a try. I cant seem to update to the latest version (4.0 right?). When i go to Microsoft website to download it keeps installing the same version (think it was 3.6 or something)

[quiqnezz]

Other thing to know not mentioned here yet is that Livesearch gives you the distance left before the turn in real time and counts down as you get closer to it. Googlemaps does not. It also gives you a beep before the turn and a chirp as you make the turn.

If they were to only have th directions always facing north on the map it would be perfect, that and 3d mapping.

[syrguy1969]

Here is the latest CAB I got from the site. I installed it and it installed as version 4.0.12158.1, so I think it is the one you need.

[ajm144k]

i went to the outer banks this past august, and figured i would see how well livesearch and google maps mapped out my trip. i was coming from ohio, traveling to the outer banks, so it was a good all-day, long distance trip. and, keep in mind- this is from august so the mapping features may have been a bit different as they are now (although i really doubt it).


with livesearch, it gave me the logical route (it was not the "shortest" route, but it was the fastest- as it used bigger highways, and therefore less total roads to travel on). it was basically the exact route that we took.

googlemaps mapped out the shortest route, following along the lines of "the shortest route from point a to point b is a straight line. the problem with googlemap's approach was that it wanted me to take a number of those 2-lane, country roads, which just isnt logical for long distance traveling.