• Virtual Earth/Live Maps, Friday, April 11, 2008 1:15 PM

Microsoft has released a host of upgrades to its Live Maps (and Virtual Earth) properties. Live Maps now uses ClearFlow (a technology developed in-house) to better reroute driving directions. "When you choose the 'Route around Traffic' option you will get much more accurate travel times and improved routes," wrote the Virtual Earth team. "We have also added a bunch more cities that we are covering with Traffic flow data from Traffic.com."

The team has also started improving their 3D views of major cities like Las Vegas and Dallas, with more attention to the surrounding suburbs, higher resolution and greater detail.

Meanwhile, a new GeoRSS feature allows users to set up and subscribe to RSS feeds for areas on the map that they're interested in. So potential homebuyers could grab a feed for the neighborhood they're viewing homes in, while out-of-state college students could stay on top of events in their hometown. Microsoft has also upgraded the video tour feature (that lets users create and share tours of their favorite locales) to support HD-quality video.

Read the whole story at Virtual Earth/Live Maps »