MSN Stakes Local-Search Claim on Virtual Earth

Bring on MSN! Ok, gist of the story here is the the folks at Microsoft plan to announce their "initial" push into local search. The company is expected to release a beta version of the MSN local search.

But to me, the coolest thing is that they are merging the "virtual earth" and search teams. This is EXACTLY what I think should be the next generation of search - search integrated with maps. I love it! Great job, MSN!

MSN Stakes Local-Search Claim on Virtual Earth