Microsoft folds-in Multimap for '$50m'

Global OS leviathan Microsoft has continued buying trendy stuff, announcing that it had bought UK ad-driven mapping service Multimap today. "This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the UK and globally," said …

[Anonymous Coward]

Another day, another market disaster in the making

How long before they MS wreck the Multimap product/service, same as MS wrecked Autoroute soon after they bought Nextbase (the company which originally brought you Autoroute)?

[Tawakalna]

well that's killed Multimap dead then.

at least the Beast of Redmond is consistent in it's desire to take perfectly adequate products and services and totally ruin them. so what's next, Multimap 2008 Professional Upgrade SR-1 or one of a dozen other variants that M$ can threaten users over if they aren't sure what version they're licenced for?

(it's a sore point because I just told an M$ rep to fook for daring to suggest that I had to my software audits for M$ convenience, rather than when I decide. Come that tone with me, Bill, and I'll Linux all me boxes!)

[Chris Morrison]

£50Million

That's pretty cheap in the web 2.0 way of things. If only mltimap had allowed people to visit their friends house and leave comments. Then they could have added a few 0's to the end!

[Anonymous Coward]

Alas poor Mulitmap...

...I knew him...

I used to use Muiltimap. Now I might switch to Google. How do those anonymiser web proxies work, again?

[Bob Gulien]

Maybe the MultiMap routes are shorter

Remeber from last year. The only route between 2 Swedish cities (70k as the crow flies) was via Newcastle, according to MS.

Maybe Multmap has shorter routes.

[PaulK]

@ Anonymous Coward

Any company that can flog millions of copies of a duff OS knows what it is doing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Diehards

I stopped using Multimap long ago, about the same time I switched to Linux. Linux is so much better than Windows bloatware slowware and Vista is the biggest joke ever.

[Silas Humphreys]

I never rated Multimap much anyway.

I use Google Maps mostly, unless I need to use a train - in which case, it's Streetmap, since Google inexplicably fails to show stations. Both have a usefully large map area (unlike Multimap) and load reasonably fast (unlike Multimap).

So really, Multimap is an ideal fit for Microsoft. Demonstrably worse, yet somehow more popular...

[Michael Sheils]

Bye Bye multimap

But you were never that good anyway.

[Frank Bough]

Shame

I used to like multimap until they google-ised the site - never found streetmap much use and google maps has only recently got its act to gether. Ah well, another one bites the dust - looking forward to the day when Business Inc does everything for everyone from cradle to grave.

Needless to say, I'll never knowingly use a MicroSoft software product.

[Anonymous Coward]

Multimap is not bad...

... Their service tends to work when Google Maps doesn't. How much worse it'll get with MS behind them I don't know (or want to).

:-\

[Phil Rigby]

"expand our platform business beyond the UK and globally"

Beyond global? Is there a space editiion in the works then?

Paris Hilton icon because that's the kind of thing she'd say.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh well... there goes another 3rd party?

After seeing what has happened to Creature House Expression 3 (awesome! Even more awesome in 2003!) let's hope that the embrace is not really a KoD

[Tony Barnes]

Worst maps ever

Having been an initial fan of Multimap a couple of years back, I have since completely given up on their retarded directions. 3 times I have been directed off motorways, only to be re-directed back onto the self same stretch of tarmac having buggered off down a country road for half a day or so.

Never again!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sigh

The story title should read "folds in", not "folds-in". Do you do this on purpose?

[Rick S]

It was only a matter of time...

Multimap have been peddling Microsoft's Web services mapping for years now (to make up for their lack of a decent mapping SDK).

The next company on the list has to be DeCarta - Multimap recently leveraged into this company.

I would question the value of this investment - in the last 12 months Multimap has been losing small clients hand over fist to the 'free' Google Map's application. Apart from marketshare (to compete against Google Maps Enterprise), there is not a whole lot of benefit in trying to keep this lame duck afloat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let the massacre begin!

What a steaming pile of shite.

Typing multimap.co.uk now just gets you re-directed to the .com site - where they don't even bother to check where you've come from and dump you in front of a map of Yankland. How thoughtful.

There's a dropdown provided, from which poor unfortunate foreigners are allowed to select their inferior non US domicile. The UK is cleverly hidden in the list under "B".

No doubt the already mangled site is now doomed to fail. Microsoft will presumably put its waining appeal down to "anti Microsoft sentiment" or some such.

Alas poor Multimap...

[Gordon]

Another one bites the dust!

Ah.. alas... I remember Hotmail when it was independant, and superb. Then M$ bought it.... Ive been spammed ever since.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just another slip down the slope...

Multimap went down hill for me when they started assuming that the IP address I was using defined the map I wanted to see. This despite the fact that I would use the old www.multimap.co.uk URL...

[John Bayly]

I almost stopped using Multimap ...

when they "updated their website". I then noticed they had a "use the old site" button, so I still get to look at the OS Landranger maps. It really helps to know to turn left at the Church or Pub when navigating through small country roads. You lose all of that detail when using the new site (IIRC, I've 1.2GB of the Landranger maps downloaded from them, all calibrated nicely - I was very bored).

@ AC: I've always used the .com site, and it's always taken me to the UK version. Are you using some funky ISP which gives out IPs from a subnet allocated to the US?

@Tony Barnes: I hope you aren't one of the people taking the piss out of the woman that didn't realise she had parked on arailway line (it wasn't on the satnav your honour). It really pays to have some idea where you're going and not follow directions blindly.

[Jeremy]

Re: Let the massacre begin!

That's not the case for me. I was redirected to .com but was presented with a map of the UK and just enough of our neighbours to be useful.

I haven't used Multimap proper in yonks. I just use one of the many outside implementations of their API that run in 100% of the screen space and without any extra Googlification. But I guess that'll be switched off to non-paying customers now too...

[Alex Wright]

Shameless plug

www.openstreetmap.org

It may not be perfect, or do routes (yet, we're working on it!), but its open source, and free to use in print or on commercial web pages, unlike Google, MS et al.

And if you have a GPS, feel free to help out!

[Chris Wood]

re: OpenStreetMap.org

Hats off to you guys - that's a really clear mapping service that shows useful points of interest and correctly labels my street as having a dead end, unlike google, TomTom et al.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen cars driving up our street at 30mph only to be confronted with a set of bollards whilst their SatNav is telling them to turn left/right!

If you get the routing going I'll happily switch from using Google Maps (street view and terrain is quite cool, but not actually that useful - give me train stations!)

[Smell My Finger]

Microsoft to blame!

Multimap has been crap for years - it's such a shame as they were a pioneer of free-mapping on the Internet. Perhaps Microsoft's investment might actually improve things. I tried following directions from a Google map, an absolute pile of bollocks that managed to get the map orientation complelely wrong. Get an AtoZ and avoid all this useless online bollocks - it only exists to sell you adverts anyway.

[Andy ORourke]

Multimap is ok but.....

I noticed recently there seems to be a LOT more full screen pop up ad's on there, oh wel.......

[Tony Barnes]

@ John Bayly

I did have some idea where I was going each trip. North, south, and then south again.

Not having satnav at the time, and having a fiance who's idea of map reading is more akin with a lesson in how to break up a relationship, I entrusted Multimap to do what it said it could whilst taking me to places I had never been near before.

More fool me.

[Matthew Shaw]

MultiMap was rubbish

I've been using Google Maps for awhile now as I found it much better than multimap. The number of times Google showed the right location of a postcode and Multimap was wrong.

Plus I love being able to switch to arial view. Useful for when turing up to a client's site I know what to expect (lay of the land etc)

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm..

Multimap's servers seem to be running Apache. I suspect I can guess what OS it's not running on.

I wonder if in future their ads^H^H^H maps will be served by IIS and Windows Server.

Or is there some compelling reason not to build a huge mapping service like this on IIS and Windows Server.

[Alistair]

Killer business model

So getting rich is now simple. Start up a business that in some minor way competes with Go0gle and sell out to the Redmond monster.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Multimap...

I applied for a job with you when you were just a startup in managed office space. We had a long, productive and extremely positive interview.

I haven't heard a word from you since. I just thought this would be a good time to ask how my application is progressing.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Chris Wood - openstreetmap.org

"Hats off to you guys - that's a really clear mapping service that shows useful points of interest and correctly labels my street as having a dead end, unlike google, TomTom et al."

That's because a volunteer with local knowledge has entered the information. But the amazing thing about openstreetmap.org is that if it hadn't been done, you could sign up as a user and 2 minutes later be adding it using the Flash-based map editor (which works in Linux) on the website.

[Duncan Hothersall]

Bugger

I've used multimap since it launched, and it really has been interesting watching their improvements over the years. Now I'm going to have to find an alternative.

[Terry Narine]

Google isn't that much better, btw

Try this - go to google maps and ask for directions from Buckingham to Cambridge... now look at the map. Anything missing? Milton Keynes... anyone, anywhere? I'm not arguing the merits of this decision, btw, just pointing out that directions/maps are fairly useless is they fail to show bleeding great eyesore sitting along the route you're driving through.

How many others are there, who can you believe?

[Fenwar]

Sans serif mapping

"Plus I love being able to switch to arial view."

Great for when Times New Roman is just too damn pointy.

[Martin Gregorie]

@ John Bayly

Thanks for pointing out the old multiMap line. The new site is a right load of sluggish dingo's excrement.

However, I noticed that the old site now has added advertising - unless you add

http://servedby.advertising.com/*

to your browser's block list. Sorted!

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Martin Gregorie

Advertising? Not with Adblock and Adblock Filterset.G updater!

[Anonymous Coward]

@John Bayly

Sussed!

They guess the region you are interested from ip address. I'd have thought that it might have occurred to the developers that as I'd gone to the trouble of typing .co.uk they might be able to glean some sort of clue about the map I'd like to use. Seems to work well for Google! I forget that Microsoft's geeks always think they know what's best for you ;-)

There's always Streetmap I suppose. It's always been the best for coordinates anyway.

...and Open Streetmap is looking VERY promising too.