Microsoft sez: Move over, Google Earth

I was perusing /. this morning and came across this:

“Today as we were biking around our neighborhood in a small city we saw a strange vehicle slowly driving around. It appeared to be an SUV, bristling with cameras mounted on the roof, and pointing just about every possible direction…  I asked him if this was Microsoft’s answer to Google Earth, and he indicated that it was…  The Windows site appears to be http://preview.local.live.com/…”

This looks kind of cool.  It’s similar to what I envisioned back in the 90’s when I found out about VRML. 

Now, imagine if Microsoft made structures in the heads-up display clickable.  This could be a new way to go about online shopping.  If you knew of a shop’s location but can’t remember how to spell its name or what their web address is, you could navigate to them on the site and click their storefront.  Chains could link to customized pages based on which store you clicked on.  If you’re trying to sell your house, you could have it linked to your listing.  There are lots of possibilities here.