Microsoft Launches Live Search Maps for India

Microsoft India launched Live Search Maps for India that offers users access to detailed listings and street maps for 9 Cities, business listings across 29 Cities and access to highway networks to 20,000 cities and towns. Live Search Maps for India is on Microsoft's Live Search Service, thereby allowing users to search for geographical information, places of general interest and business listings both on the PC and Mobile at http://maps.live.co.in and http://m.live.co.in. This is the first version of its local mapping service for India with the key features developed by the Microsoft India Development Centre (MSIDC) based in Hyderabad .

Key features of Live Search Maps for India include Street Maps, Location Search, Business Listing Search, Routing or Directions for Navigation and options for users to print, share collections through email, blogs on Windows Live. Some of the unique aspects about Location Search on Live Search Maps are its global relevance, context-awareness, error-tolerance, partial decoding of address, acronym expansion, road intersection and context sensitive global fuzzy search. Several key innovations and features of Live Search Maps India were developed at MSIDC based on their research and understanding of the search needs of users in India ; thus ensuring local relevance and customization of the product, Live Search Maps on Mobile is a Direct To Consumer (DTC) service without requiring one-on-one  relationships with the mobile carriers. It leverages the Live Search Maps for India to deliver 2D Mobile Maps, Location Search and Driving Directions and supports Adaptive Rendering for results from Web, News, Instant Answers and Spaces Search.