Redmond (WA) - The Big Apple is getting the 3D treatment in Microsoft’s updated Live Search Map service.  The online maps will now have photorealistic 3D renderings of high-rises and major monuments in New York.  Internet Explorer and Firefox users can view the maps after downloading a Virtual Earth 3d plugin from maps.live.com.

Windows Live Map of New York...

Upon zooming into New York, users will get a 3D option in the upper-left corner of the map.  Then 3D representations of buildings can be viewed from a street-level or from a 45-degree top-down angle.  You can also view stuff from directly above, but we found this to be quite boring when dealing with high rises.

New York now joins several other medium-sized cities that have detailed 3D maps on Microsoft’s Live Search site.

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo are currently at each others necks in the online mapping market.  Google recently added actual street-level photographs to several cities.

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