Last November, Microsoft launched its much-awaited Live Search Maps, which offers users three-dimensional and photo-realistic views of selected urban cityscapes across the United States.

According to Microsoft, the free online service will provide users with a fresh look at many landmarks and locations, as well as local listings, ratings and reviews, and driving directions to help people easily find, discover, plan and share relevant location information.”

Live Search Maps 3-D rendering of New York City (its most recent addition, along with Ottawa, Canada) will initially provide aerial views of Times Squares, Central Park, and other iconic spots, along with Yellow Pages listings, location and contact information, consumer ratings and reviews for New York City businesses. Real-time traffic incident and driving directions are also incorporated into the maps. Users will be able to create custom maps and lists of places for their own use, or to share with others.

Though this new technology has elicited a lot of oohs and aahs since it was launched, many still consider 3-D mapping to be a novelty in this day and age, rather than a useful, everyday tool.

According to an article in ITWire.com, 3-D mapping is really about future applications that are interesting to contemplate. Think of them as more practical versions of Second Life, metaverses that will offer lots of content, e-commerce opportunities (i.e., Travel) and even social networking in the near future, as connection speeds improve. And these 3-D worlds will play well on TV, as the Internet increasingly makes its way into the living room.

Though it could have some useful local search relevance in the near future, 3-D mapping generally regarded as being ahead of its time, because its full capabilities aren’t maximized with average broadband connection speeds.

When broadband speeds, processing power, and graphic chips catch up to 3-D mapping technologies, it could see greater adoption for both the fantastical Second Life-type experiences, and more practical local search and 3-D mapping applications, wrote Mike Boland of the Kelsey Group. Watching them converge in different ways will be interesting, and will impact the standards that emerge for the next generation of local search.