Microsoft launches local mapping service in India

On Monday, software major Microsoft joined rivals Google and Yahoo in having a local mapping service for India when it launched ''Live Search Maps'' for the country, offering detailed listings and street maps for nine cities, business listings across 29 cities and access to highway networks to 20,000 cities and towns. Domestic firm MapMyIndia also has a similar product in the market. (See: MapmyIndia launches iNav navigational software for GPS phones)

The company's India Development Centre (IDC) in Hyderabad has developed the first version of the local mapping service for India. The maps include addresses, roads, localities, landmarks, detailed street maps and places of general interest like monuments, restaurants, hotels and other places of interest.

The nine cities featured in detail include the four metros of New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, along with Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Microsoft plans to extend this coverage to 30 cities in the future and add features like landmark based driving directions, collections search, and options for enterprise customers and developer community along with satellite imagery.

Additionally, the service will allow the user see business listings across 29 major cities like Pune, Agra, Allahabad, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Cochin, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangalore, Nagpur, Nasik, Patiala, Patna, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Vishakapatnam.

Available both on PC and mobile, Live Search Maps for India is available on Microsoft's Live Search Service.

Speaking at the launch, Rishi Srivastava, consumer & online marketing operations Head, Microsoft India, said, ''Over the last two years, Microsoft has made significant investments into research and development for Live Search, acquired global resources and introduced several new features which we believe are extremely relevant and will deliver great value to our users."

Talking about the revenue model, Srivastava said, ''The service is free for consumers. We will generate revenues through advertisements but that will be later. Currently, we are focusing on generating unique consumer experience to have people using the service.''

''In the near future, we plan to add new features such as landmark-based driving directions, satellite imagery and related features for India,'' IDC General Manager (Live Search and MSN Technologies) Gurpreet Pall said.