SOFTWARE JUGGERNAUT Microsoft has managed to map Buenos Aires, Argentina before Google Maps. As the local press went bonkers over the launch of the Argentine version of Livemaps, we decided to try it out, only to find it fully works on Microsoft's IE and sports half-finished translations.

Microsoft's own Live Maps however has a first because it crosses the city border and extends beyond to the Greater Buenos Aires area, for the joy of all 12 million suburbanites down under. The site can be accessed here.

We reported some time ago that the Buenos Aires city had a taxpayer-funded working marvel of a maps site running and based on Open Source software. The site is still available and with new layers of data added with every revision. However, it covers only the city of Buenos Aires.

Government-run City map runs on Linux and an Open Source GIS

Shame on Google
So, in the race to get digital maps done, the Buenos Aires government was first in 2005, Microsoft was second just now, and Google Maps... we're still waiting for any street names to show up on Google Maps.

Satellite view vs Maps view on Google Maps

We pointed out at the time that digitised GIS data was available from the maps agency for a nominal fee and with no strings attached with regards to usage. It seems Google doesn't read the INQUIRER but the Microsoft Vole apparently does. For a firm that a year ago opened its regional headquarters in Buenos Aires, it should be red faced not to appear on its own maps.

LiveMaps predictably works best on IE
We decided to test the site. Since we're basically evil, and knowing Microsoft's tradition of ignoring the competing software - as a way to defend its dominant position - we started with Google's Chrome browser. We typed " Balcarce 50" - with no quotes - the address of the Casa Rosada, the presidential HQ and the local equivalent to 10 Downing Street. On Livemaps, a "Loading" message briefly flashed followed by... nothing. This is the same syntax by the way -street name followed by number- that we use daily on mapa.buenosaires.gov.ar with great results.

Loading... and... see below.

Live Maps predictably hates Google's Chrome: no error screen

We switched to Firefox 3.0... once again "Balcarce 50"... the "Cargando..." message - loading - on screen followed by... a white square. Nothing, nada. Great Job Microsoft! So we loaded Livemaps on Internet Explorer 7... predictably after the "Loading..." message ... there was an error screen, half written in Spanish and half written in Portuguese.

Perhaps this subtle hint shows that this was adapted and/or developed in Brazil and not Argentina, or perhaps Microsoft has no quality control which is what we've been suspecting since the release of Windows 95. But hey, anything goes these days thanks to the "Beta" label.

There is an error screen in IE. There's white space and no feedback on IE 3.0

Once again, Microsoft is caught doing services that work better with Microsoft's own web browser, and offering a sub-par experience to anyone who dares not to run the firm's Integral Part of the Windows Operating System - stand in line to buy your boxed copy of Vista please.

Awkward syntax and more
We quickly found what was going on... the site expects street name, number, city and province all separated by a comma. Surfers using IE7 get the error screen if you just type "streetname number". Visitors using FF 3.0 or Chrome get... nothing. After turning "Balcarce 50" into "Balcarce,50,Capital Federal,BA " an awkward address syntax if we've ever seen one, the system does find its way around its spaghetti code and displays the location.

On the upside, there' are two positives: first the bitmaps displayed are very soft and with round edges, clearly anti-aliasing is applied before rendering - that doesn't happen on the government-run map site buenosaires.gov.ar, surely at the expense of CPU power needed to do the job. We don't think the lone server at the city government can match a Microsoft server farm. Second, the Livemaps look "cleaner" at the expense of showing less information at once, for instance in the default view we got there were no street numbers on every block.

Fixing the Microsoft site to use a friendlier human-readable syntax would be of help. Surely they can make "Balcarce 50" turn internally into "Balcarce,50" and the like. And surely they could fix the error screen to appear on Chrome and Firefox as well. Translating the Portuguese dialogues into Spanish would also help those Argentinians living in Argentina who don't speak Portuguese like Brazilians.

In any case, people living in the Greater Buenos Aires suburban area will currently have no choice but to load IE and point it to livemaps.com.ar for the only working on-line map that crosses provincial borders. Those moving inside Buenos Aires city are much better served by good old mapa.buenosaires.gov.ar µ