It seems the satellite imaginary at Google Maps now covers major towns in the UK including London at high detail from what I've seen. It also covers Rome, Athens and Barcelona in high detail. I will definitely explorer this some more when I get a chance!

Andy Hagans and Patrick Gavin (of the popular link broker site - Text Link Ads) have set-up their own Blog called Link Building Blog. From what I've read it seems to have great articles, definitely one I will to returning to frequently.

Microsoft have just released MSN Local Search. By clicking the local tab on the MSN homepage you can test this new service (currently in its beta stage). The service allows you on type on a service or product you want to find, for example "book store". When you click "local" is then lists the top 10 stores (labelled A-J) in order of distance.

For each listing it provides business name, address, phone number, distance and even directions. All this is nicely displayed on a map (see below on my rather small screen capture). The maps are quite basic but do allow you to zoom in/out and pan without reloading the entire page (much like Google Maps without the scrolling.)



You location can be altered in the settings screens in case it is incorrect first time - unfortunately I couldn't get it to work of UK results I had to move my location to the US to get results like one screen shown above. Microsoft are currently working on Virtual Earth to directly take on Google Maps later this year.

A new online payment system is rumoured to be in development at Google - apparently to be called Google Wallet. This will be a direct rival to one of the biggest Internet based companies - Ebay (which purchased PayPal in 2002). I have also heard of a service called Google Auctions which be seriously damage Ebay and the top online auction website. News of the new payment system is covered in this story.

I reported about a new feature to AdWords called Site Target recently. Well it now turns out that it is no longer in just the beta stage for a few testers, everyone can now use this new feature and restrict their campaign to only display ads on selected websites.