Even though we couldn’t figure out what Micro Sosg was (or what it was doing smack dab in the middle of Microsoft’s Redmond campus, Scoble), Jake and I decided to take everybody on a quick tour of MSN Virtual Earth. Seems like a slightly more user friendly mapping system, especially when compared directly against Google Maps and/or Yahoo! Maps. Virtual Earth sports a few more features than the competitors - even though it’s still in beta, and will not likely hit your browser window until the end of summer (though it’ll work within Internet Explorer AND Firefox).

My current choice is Google Maps. As far as desktop mapping is concerned, I’m still a Streets & Trips kind of guy, and Google Earth isn’t going to change that until it speeds up and/or develops a better UI. I’d have expected a more Picasa-like app from its software team. Microsoft’s Streets & Trips may not have evolved much over the years, but at least it’s clean and relatively straightforward.