I’ve just been giving a (brief) tryout to Microsoft’s Live Maps site (which has just recently been made Safari compatible) on the iPhone.  MS are sounding as if they may be developing a native version for when the new iPhone firmware hits, but for now Live Maps is a web app.  I’d read an iPhone Central post panning it recently, but was curious enough to give it a quick try anyway.

My very quick verdict – not worth it at all.  It’s painfully slow, requires an awful lot of pinching and zooming to see anything well, and does not look to have had any iPhone optimizing done at all.  Overall, I agree completely with Dan Moren’s views:

On the iPhone, it ‘s a different matter. This isn ‘t entirely Microsoft ‘s fault: it ‘s hard to compete with the native implementation of Google ‘s maps. But we know it ‘s possible to have a good web app experience on the iPhone, and Microsoft doesn ‘t really seem interested in doing that at all.

Take, for example, the zooming controls, which are on the left side of the map. Like most maps, when you hit the ‘Zoom In ‘ control, it zooms on the center. The problem is that the map isn ‘t sized for the iPhone ‘s screen, and it ‘s only really usable in landscape orientation. Even then, you need to get the map to a size where it ‘s both a) easily visible and b) the controls are large enough that you can tap them precisely. That ‘s already asking me to do a lot more finagling than I should have to.

Unless your iPhone Maps app is completely broken or unavailable, I can’t think of a reason to give Live Maps a look.  A native Live Maps app would still be very interesting to see, but I’ll definitely pass on the web app.   If you’d like to have a look for yourself and share your thoughts, you can check it out at:

http://maps.live.com/

Tags: Microsoft, Live Maps, Google Maps, iPhone Maps programVia: iPhone Central

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