The upgrades to the mapping site are intended to accelerate Microsoft's pursuit of Google and Yahoo! into the $15 billion online advertising market. With this in mind they are offering more appealing web services in order to potentially attract advertisers and increase traffic volumes over the search engine.
Features on the online mapping service can now help users create lists of favourite locations within a map and share them over e-mail or post them on blog sites. Groups can now share maps and information within an Instant Messenger window. Small businesses are now able to target customers effectively within the mapping service regardless of whether they have purchased online ads previously or not. A Windows Live Local add-in is said to now be available for Microsoft's Office Outlook e-mail and scheduling software. The free download allows users to find and print maps and directions from within Outlook and allows them to schedule driving time into the calendar. It would also be possible to send links with mapping information about meeting locations to other people within Outlook calendar requests.
The market leaders in mapping are America Online, followed by Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft. Mapping is among many services which now serve as battlegrounds for the big guns of the internet: Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google.
