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Take That, Google: Bill Gates Struts Microsoft's New Search Stuff CARLSBAD, Calif., May 23 - Bill Gates used his appearance at an industry conference here Monday to offer Microsoft's response to Google's latest online offerings, incorporating satellite imagery into location-based search results and introducing a new customizable MSN "start" page. Mr. Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chief software architect, also said that he was skeptical of Google's ability to maintain its dominance in the search marketplace indefinitely. Increasingly, he asserted, that competition will revolve around new technologies and take place in new arenas, like searching local information, where Google is less dominant than in Web searching. "Google is still perfect, the bubble is floating and they can do everything," Mr. Gates told the moderator sarcastically at a conference on digital technology, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, at a resort in this town 35 miles north of San Diego. "You should buy their stock at any price." He then added, "We had a 10-year period just like that." Microsoft will make its satellite-imaging technology available this summer as part of an advertising-supported local search service offered by MSN, its online service, he said. Microsoft will then add more elaborate imagery in the fall. Microsoft's service, called Virtual Earth, will compete directly against a service called Google Earth, which will feature high-resolution imagery, three-dimensional buildings in some cities and driving directions, among other features. Today Mr. Gates showed the Microsoft service offering mapping data overlaid on the satellite imagery, all of it combined with directory listings and a clipboard feature that lets users make note of places they find. He said the new product had its roots in work done at Microsoft Research, which during the last decade has developed a global mapping database known as TerraServer. He demonstrated the ability for MSN online users to move back and forth between map views of local information and satellite views of the same locations. He also said that Microsoft had taken an exclusive license for enhanced aerial photo imagery from Pictometry International of Rochester. In his demonstration, he showed a high-resolution photo of a downtown building in Seattle taken from a 45-degree angle, showing significant structural detail generally unavailable from top-down satellite images. Last week Google, which already offers satellite imagery of the United States based on its Google Maps service, showcased the advances in satellite-aided search results reflected in Google Earth, developed with its acquisition of Keyhole, a satellite imaging software company. One conference participant involved in the local-search field was dismissive of the value added by satellite imagery. "It's eye candy," said the participant, Perry Evans, the founder of MapQuest service (now owned by America Online), who recently founded Local Matters, a company based in Denver that offers search technology for local information. But he said the competition between Google and Microsoft was forcing both companies to quickly introduce new services, which would be useful to customers.
http://www.nytimes.com
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