Live Local Adds Motor City for Super Bowl Coverage…What’s missing?
Microsoft Live Local added Detroit to its list of urban areas using the "bird’s eye view imagery" from Pictometry just in time for Super Bowl XL. But I expected to see restaurants, parking lots, and transportation hubs that would be more useful to tourists. The local points of interest were "flagged" around Ford Field but I think the tourist would find more benefit in knowing where to park then a list of churches. The link to previous super bowls (upper left corner) was interesting but it took a second refresh of my browser because the first time I hit that link I landed among buffalo wallows in the middle of South Dakota. Anyway, it’s worth checking out if you are a fan but I think the benefits to local businesses or to the tourist to help them navigate stadium traffic are sketchy at best. I would have liked to see a more direct benefit to the area economy for this to be a more useful tool. Again, I wear the hat of trying to determine how Live Local and other web mapping portals are helping businesses "profit" from location technology.
