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Johannesburg - Microsoft has confirmed it will launch Live Maps for South Africa in two weeks and that the service would be hosted locally. Live Maps is part of the Microsoft Windows Live set of online applications.
"The solution is built and ready to go," said Microsoft's Colin Erasmus in an interview with Fin24.com. "But the map files themselves are huge and take time to process," he said.
"Microsoft and its local partners are conducting due diligence before officially launching the service," he said.
Using Live Maps, users can view map data, get directions, and make use of third-party applications that utilise the service. It can be accessed either by visiting maps.live.com in a web browser, or by using a Windows cellphone.
Hosting the map data in SA is crucial because it will allow local users to access data at the fastest possible speeds; it is likely to be quicker than Google in terms of locally-hosted web applications.
Live Maps has always had data for South Africa, but not at a granular street level and without official support. Directions and other features have not been available locally.
2010 a catalyst
"Live Maps will offer more and better functionality for South Africa now, and there will also be API sets specific to the region," said Erasmus. APIs allow third parties to access the service and build it into their own solutions.
"Some of these are open to third-party developers and others are closed and based on licensing agreements," he said.
"We have been working on this for quite a long time, looking at the needs of the market over the last 12 to 18 months. With 2010 around the corner, we felt that there was a need for more granular South African data on the map sets," said Erasmus.
The Microsoft service differs form Google Maps in that it uses different providers for its map data.
The Microsoft partner for this is Navteq, a leading worldwide provider of map data. Live Maps also uses vector-based images for its visual mapping, which means that map images load faster and scale better than those of its competitors.
"As local broadband becomes available, we will see more of Microsoft's services being hosted locally," said Erasmus.
- Fin24.com