Microsoft has updated the look of Photosynth and added a few new tools and features, as well as improved site search:
Our green Photosynth theme has been with our team since the beginning and we didn’t want to lose it completely, but we did realize that as our pages got longer with more useful community content we needed to improve the design to help make that content easier to read. The darker background and colors also help the great photos in your synths shine the most on the page. Have a look around the site with the new design and let us know your thoughts.
We added the comment count and geotag icon to tradecards across the site to help you see what synths have been located on the map and what synths are being actively discussed… or where you can be the first to leave a comment.
I think Photosyth is great but still little known, although it’s accessible through (now) Bing Maps:
Google Maps has added a new feature Google is calling Smart Navigation. It’s very useful; it’s also similar to the way users navigate through and manipulate images in Photosynth (you’d have to use both to see):
Today, we are really excited to introduce a new mode of navigation which liberates you from the road arrows and gets you where you want to go in just a few clicks. You can now use Street View’s smart navigation to travel to a new place just by double clicking on the place or object you would like to see. We have been able to accomplish this by making a compact representation of the building facade and road geometry for all the Street View panoramas using laser point clouds and differences between consecutive pictures.
You go to StreetView and move the cursor to the location within the image you’d like to explore. You then double click and it takes you directly to the StreetView of that place/location, rather than having to use the arrows along the street:
The image below is a double click on the red awning shops at the end of the block:
It’s difficult to convey how this works with static images. So here’s a Google video of how it operates:
Screenwerk 
October 28, 2009 at 10:59 am
I gotta say Photosynth is pretty sweet, although I would rather use it with Google maps.
Acually google maps just released an update that kind of makes bing look outdated -> can read about it here: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/geek-stuff/google-maps-gets-a-facelift/
November 10, 2009 at 2:21 pm
[…] offered user-created maps before Google My Maps and has a great product in Photosyth, which Google has emulated to some degree in a couple of ways. Maps is an area that Microsoft and Bing could do a great deal […]