Tour the world from your chair with Live Search and 3D Maps
With Live Search and 3D Maps from Microsoft Virtual Earth, you
can tour the world without ever leaving the comfort of your chair. To get
started, go to http://maps.live.com
and
install 3D Maps. On the Live Search page, under Explore,
click Install 3D. Follow the instructions on your screen.
A three-dimensional globe will appear in your browser window. Simply
drag it around to see various parts of the earth.
See the sites
To locate a particular place, click Locations, and then type the
name of the location in the search box, for example, "Great Pyramid,
Egypt." Click Search, and the globe will rotate and zoom in so you can see the
pyramids.
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| You can use Live Search to see locations such as the Great Pyramids |
At first, this view shows you the area of Egypt where
the pyramids are located. To see the ancient structures up close, click the Zoom icon 
. There are the pyramids! Now
use the pan tool 
to see the pyramids from different directions.
You can rotate your view to fly around the pyramids by pressing the CTRL
key while dragging with your mouse, or by pressing the CTRL key while using the arrow keys
on your keyboard.
Now let's find the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. First type Eiffel Tower, and then click Search. Zoom in and there it is!
To see some really cool skyscrapers, type in New
York City. While you're there, fly out over the harbor and see the
Statue of Liberty! When you see Lady Liberty, click Bird's eye
to get a really spectacular image of the statue.
 |
| A bird's-eye view of the Statue of Liberty |
Another really fun thing to see with Virtual Earth is your own
home. Type your address, city, state, and ZIP Code, and you'll see your house.
In most urban areas you can zoom tight enough to see a car parked in your
driveway. Pretty cool! Around the world and home again.
Share your discoveries
Take your friends on your trip around the world with 3D Maps,
collections, and Windows Live sharing features. Do you want to invite friends on a dream vacation? Get them motivated with a preview of what they'll see. Or,
document all the places you've lived and share it with your family.
First, you'll need to create a set of pushpins, and then save
them as a collection. Use the Location search to go to your first location. Once
you are viewing the location you want to save, click Add to
collection. The Collections editor window appears
and your first location is listed. Go ahead and save it now before you add more
locations to it. Fill out the Collection properties
window, and then click Save. This will save your pushpins
on the scratch pad. For visually interesting places such as Mount Rushmore or the
Seattle Space Needle, make sure you're in the 3D view when you create the
pushpin.
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| The Collection Properties window |
Now that you've created your collection, it's ready to share. You
can send the collection in an e-mail message or post a blog to your Windows Live Space. By copying it to your clipboard or viewing the Permalink you can
paste it anywhere a link can be pasted. Just select an option from the Share menu.
Now everyone can follow along on your travel adventures!
Help and How-to
