Microsoft has announced the launch of Live Search Maps for India. Detailed Listings and Street Maps for 9 Cities, Business Listings across 29 Cities and access to highway networks to 20,000 Cities and Towns is now avalilable vie Live Search Maps on the PC and Mobile in India. On can access live search maps on http://maps.live.co.in/. This is the first version of the live maps for India and key features of the same were developed by the Microsoft India Development Centre (MSIDC) based in Hyderabad.
Microsoft is sourcing the maps from Navteq (just like Yahoo sources it from MapmyIndia). Navteq for those who dont know is a Chicago, Illinois-based provider of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia but operates independently.
Speaking on the launch, Rishi Srivastava, Consumer & Online Marketing Operations Head, Microsoft India, said, “We are proud to launch Live Search Maps for users in our country. This is the first version of Live Search Maps for India and Microsoft will continue to introduce new features and improvements in the near future to meet emerging needs of consumers. Over the last two years, Microsoft has made significant investments into research and development for Live Search, acquired global resources and introduced several new features which we believe are extremely relevant and will deliver great value to our users. Live Search Maps will be accessible on the PC and the mobile, thus ensuring that users get the information they need anytime”.
Microsoft seems to getting aggressive with Live search in India. Just recently it had launched new features to live search like picture and video search which were pretty good on the usability front. With regards to maps India is seeing tremendous traction in map based web and mobile products. MapmyIndia introduced a lot of mobile enabled features recently which lets people know where their loved ones are on the go.
To me map based services are far more needed on mobile and given India’s mobile penetration which is growing at a break neck speed it is just a time factor as far as Location based services on mobile become a really big opportunity.
