Live.com to see executive shuffle?
Microsoft has continued to struggle with its new Live.com branding for its online consumer site offerings.
A source has told VentureBeat there’s about to be a management reshuffling at Live.
We ran this by Microsoft, and a spokesperson declined comment. So we’ll chalk it up to rumor until we hear more.
Meanwhile, Microsoft said yesterday it would offer movies and episodes of television shows for downloading through its Xbox Live online service in the United States, starting Nov. 22. It’s about time, though, since Apple is doing already this.
Microsoft also launched Virtual Earth, which presents a three-dimensional view of 15 cities, and 100 more by summer of next year. The imagery is taken from airplanes from buildings, and provides angled, textured shots, compared to Google’s flat photographical view. Some say it is cooler than Google Earth.
Unlike Google, you can find it via search at MSN, via the “maps” tab.
You type in San Francisco, and you’re prompted with a box that lets you see the city in 3D, and then given the option to install (see below, and see example of San Jose at bottom).
Surprisingly, though, it has opened it up to for advertisers to promote their brands on virtual billboards throughout the city. See the Merc’s story here (free registration).
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
