For those who didn’t know already, I am currently at Rockville, Maryland (USA). Whenever you are in the US, you will realize the importance of online maps (and offline too at times) and the way these maps can familiarize you quickly with an unknown territory.

Mapquest and Yahoo were probably the forerunners of online maps till Google came around. Google Maps and Google Earth were simply too good and they used some neat AJAX-ing to get the wonderful effect of these “sliding maps” when you moved around.

Yesterday I was talking to Rosh, who was busy looking to see if he could see a satellite image of me when he was talking to me over the phone, and then I told him that MSN Virtual Earth is also a good alternative.

I had myself visited MSN Virtual Earth very long ago, and so decided to check it out. For one, MSN Virtual Earth now powers Windows Live Local and the interface seemed very confusing some time ago. But now it all makes sense.

It is simply the best web-based map tool interface – and I’m not being partial. The Scratch Pad is such a wonderful concept. I hate it when I have to keep typing the address again and again in other tools once you’ve moved elsewhere.

The best feature of all is the “Bird’s Eye View”. Seeing is definitely believing here – you got to see it to appreciate it. It gives you a much clearer idea of the map than the satellite map which shows you the rooftops of buildings that you wouldn’t anyway be able to see.

I also like the nifty tools and the neat menu interface on the top. Also try the directions when you are viewing in bird’s eye view, the map shows you step-wise landmarks of where you have to take a right or a left.

To the friends at Redmond – GREAT WORK!