MSN Update

Today I found this month-0ld video of the MapPoint team that describes what will becoming from them in a few weeks. It looks like they will address some of my issues and add a lot of sexy features. The video can be found here
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=71140

Here's a summary of what is new/cool:
Layered/Dynamic searches - the ability to layer up to five searches on the map, the searches are dynamically updated as the user pans and zooms.
Scratchpad - a place to save the places/results the user is most interested in. The scratchpad can be shared via email, MSN Spaces, etc.

They are doing some neat things with satellite maps where they overlay street names and landmarks right onto the maps.

They will be adding a detail page, which doesn't exist today to include store hours, etc.

"Eagle Eye" view which will include low altitude aerial photographs taken at a 45 degree angle will (from Pictometry) not be in the July release. This feature seems like an eye candy feature to me.

Local Search Comparison - Yahoo!, Google and MSN

I compared a couple of local queries across the three major search engines - Google, Yahoo! and the recently launched MSN local search. I focused on two major components: the quality of the search results and the user interface of the results.

Yahoo! was the best in terms of quality of search results and user interface. Google has the most readable maps. MSN fared the worst of the three.

I searched for

1. coffee shops around my home street address in San Francisco, an urban environment.

2. computer stores around 33486, a zip code in Boca Raton, Florida, a suburban environment.

I chose these queries because they are queries that I have actually done in the past, and I am familiar enough with the geographic areas to be able to provide (a biased) judgment about the results.

Quality of Results:

	Yahoo!	Google	MSN
Coffee Shop	9 of 10 nearest coffee shops	5 of 10 nearest coffee shops	2 of 10 nearest coffee shops Note: MSN only allows zip and City searches (and not by street address). This limitation seriously impaired results
Major Computer Stores returned (other results were not large retail computer stores)	Apple Note: also returned a closed Gateway store.	Office Depot Apple CompUSA	Only returns 10 results, no major stores

User Interface

	Yahoo!	Google	MSN
Pros	Mouseover on result highlights icon on map WiFi information for each result Clipping from a review available Search Nearby	Anti-aliasing, widest streets and consistent font usage makes G! maps the easiest to read. WiFi information for each result Results and map on same page Summary of Ratings	Mouseover on result highlights icon on map Good Default Zoom Level Results and map on same page
Cons	Separate page (and click) to access map	Worst default zoom level	Zip code, city only searches Only provides address and phone number, no additional information

Overall, the utility of Yahoo and Google are highest. The biggest area for future improvement is the actual results generated by the search engine, rather than the user interface. Improving the results probably needs to be addressed on a category by category basis.

The search for computer stores was particularly problematic. Larger stores such as CompUSA or Office Depot which would be more likely to have extensive selections of products were either not returned or hard to find because many small shops and consultants were returned.

New Y! Mobile Mail Service

Yesterday, Yahoo! released a new version of their mobile mail service. The new service includes a downloadable client, push mail, and is priced at $2.99 per month.

I tested the service on my Treo 650 with Sprint.

Pros:
- Fast, responsive UI, at least on my Treo
- Sync worked well
- Messages deleted on the device are deleted on the server

Cons:
- Doesn't automatically remove extra lines from email messages, forcing me to scroll through empty space
- Can't move messages to folders which effectively means I can only read my mail, and not manage my mail
- Push didn't seem to work reliably

Overall, I'll stick with Chatteremail and my hosted Microsoft Exchange mailbox from 1and1.

But this little test did make me realize that Yahoo's mobile product suite today is really a disconnected set of tools and technologies. The mobile mail client, the WAP front-end and photos are not well integrated with my PC experience.

It's hard to see how and when Yahoo will pull all of the information they already know about me (Mail, My, Local, etc.) into the experience I really want on my mobile device. On my mobile device, personalization, preferences and profile information is more useful and more important than on my PC, yet Yahoo doesn't make good use of the information.

I may have to revise my MVNO/Yahoo prediction to 10 years.

MVNO Prediction

Yahoo (and Google) are on a collision course with the wireless operators for ownership of data services on mobile phones. I predict that friction between wireless operators and Yahoo will cause Yahoo to create an MVNO within five years (by 2010).

Yahoo has a lot of information that ought to be seamlessly available on my phone (contacts, phone numbers, locations, recent searches, etc.) Unless the built-in applications on the phone become much more open, Yahoo will need better control over the handset environment to provide the user experience they desire.

What do you think?