A lot of hype has surrounded Microsoft’s Windows Live Local, but it was not an original idea.

I suspect Microsoft visited A9 BlockView and thought it was a good idea. The biggest difference between Windows Live Local and BlockView is the lack of satellite based navigation and a car style navigation system. A9 is far better though, covering 24 major American cities in great detail. BlockView was the first major product to use MTurk, thousands of people identified buildings and provided their address to help build this.

BlockView uses MapQuest as a mapping system, which itself isn’t perfect. Nonetheless, the map search is extremely accurate. I prefer BlockView a lot of Windows Live Local. But really, isn’t this just a novelty?

Tags: Windows Live Local, Microsoft, Amazon, A9, BlockView, A9 BlockView, Windows