Cool Maps

I'm a sucker for maps. I've spent maaany hours in front of google earth. I've placemarks on all places I've visited the last couple of years. I studied googlesightseeing. Played with the 3d views. I've explored the world, inch by inch. The maps are really detailed even outside north america, except for Africa. Africa are like one country.

For a couple of weeks I found Live Maps from Microsoft. It was really cool. Zoom in Manhattan and try out birds view and the 3d view. Unfortanly the maps are not so detailed as google outside US.

Yesterday Microsoft released a new version of Live Maps. This version has really cool features, like real time traffic information (US only), ratings and reviews of business listings, area calculations and "a plugin for Microsoft Outlook that brings maps, travel planning meeting enhancements and a bunch more location based features to Outlook". Check this out.