Mark's Notebook

MSN Maps

MSN Local Live Maps (http://local.live.com/) may "blow Google out of the water," but they don't run on Apple's Safari browser. Why would that be?

I've tested on the following other browsers where the page does not work properly:

• IE 5.2.3 Mac (!!!)
• OmniWeb 5.12 Mac

and the following pages that work properly:

• Firefox 1.5 Mac (works but generates 17 Javascript errors)
• Opera 8.5 Mac (works no matter how I have the browser identify)
• Camino 0.85 Mac
• Mozilla 1.7.8 Mac
• Netscape 7.2 Mac

A cursory examination shows that the page uses JScript instead of JavaScript. That's to be expected, I guess. There is also a line of code that checks whether the browser is IE. But it doesn't appear to lock out other browsers. I had Opera identify as Opera, as Mozilla, and as IE, and it worked no matter which identity I chose.

I'd like to add these maps to the arsenal at www.mixed-up.com/maps.

FWIW, the maps are only so-so, but the aerial views are wonderful!

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009