The Windows Live Maps team announced today an update to their mobile browser-based map and search service, m.live.com.
The new version includes greater detail in listings, aggregated reviews and photos of restaurants and other businesses, scrollable maps and more.
It’s a very nice service that warrants more attention in a world all-too-often focused exclusively on Google when it comes to mapping. Other than Google Maps’ new location discovery feature, Live.com’s mobile service is significantly more sophisticated.
Support for mobile search in China was also announced today, at least for web, images, news and Live Spaces – maps in China are still in the “coming soon” category.
While the mobile webpage for Live Search is nice, it’s no where near as impressive as the Windows Mobile and Blackerry client app from Live. Available at LiveSearchMobile that app is jaw dropping. In addition to all of the features available in the mobile browser, the client app also offers solid speech recognition for search, very smooth scrolling of full-screen maps and easy road, aerial or traffic views of your map.
While that service isn’t perfect either (did you know there’s no pizza on Hawthorne Street in Portland, Oregon?), to say that mobile search and mapping has a huge future is both obvious and an understatement. The Live.com team is one to watch in this space.
