In a move that experts are saying represents a real improvement, Microsoft has updated its Windows Live Local online-mapping service with several new features, including the ability to share maps customized with photos of specific landmarks and locations.

In additon to offering real-time traffic information through a new hookup with Traffic.com, Windows Live Local (available at http://local.live.com) now offers the ability to create and save lists of favorite locations within a map and share them via e-mail, blogs, or instant-messaging applications.

"The new Windows Live Local is definitely an improvement on the old version, which just provided a mapping tool," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Now Microsoft has added some very valuable features, particularly the ability to create and save searches into a file known as a collection."

Overlays and Integration

"With the previous version of Windows Live Local, you could save maps on a short-term basis," she said. "Now you can save maps for the long term, annotate them, and share them with other people."

Li also pointed to the new feature that allows users to place overlays on maps. "For example, you can add an overlay that says, 'This is my favorite running route around the city.'"

In addition, if you live in a rural area and you don't want to send complicated driving directions, Li explained, you can send a map that simply indicates where you live. "The user does not need your address," she said. "They can just right-click on the location to find you."

Li said that another useful feature in the new version of Windows Live Local is integration with Outlook Meetings.

"This feature will appeal to a smaller number of users as Outlook Meetings is a plug-in that users have to download," Li said. "But the new version allows users who are scheduling a meeting to include a map giving directions and even to include travel times to the destination."

Local Connections

Rolling out the new features for Windows Live Local represents an effort on the part of Microsoft to keep pace with recent developments by its fiercest competitors, namely Google and Yahoo, in the battle for Internet users looking for better local search tools.

"After general Web searches, local searches are the second most important Web search application," said James Lamberti, vice president of Internet ratings company ComScore Network. "Around 20 percent of all searches are local searches. It is very important to consumers to be able to carry out local searches."

According to a blog posting by HitWise analyst Bill Tancer, in the week ending May 13, Mapquest was the top U.S. mapping site, with a 56.3 percent share of the market, followed by Yahoo Maps with 20.5 percent and by Google Maps with 7.5 percent. Microsoft's MSN Virtual Earth offering came in fourth with 4.3 percent.

The new version of Windows Live Local has been simultaneously launched in the U.S., the UK, and Canada.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said that there will be advertising opportunities on Windows Live Local. "The date for the launch of advertising has yet to be determined," she said.