Google’s Street View app, alongside Google Earth, has ever-so-slightly changed the world–buying a house may never be the same again, for one thing, nor will smartphone-based navigation. And that’s probably why another tech giant wants in on the same action. Microsoft’s apparently due to have a go with its own application dubbed GeoSynth.

Since it was introduced more than two years ago, Microsoft™ innovative Photosynth technology has been “under-leveraged, written a number of times about Photosynth and its potential.

Now, according to an article in Fast Company, Microsoft is going to compete more aggressively with Google StreetView by soliciting user-generated photos and then geotagging and Photosynthing them. The effort is reportedly called”Geosynth”:

Microsoft is going to find its images from someone else, namely, you. Essentially GeoSynth is going to function as a mashup between Microsoftâ„¢s Virtual Earth maps system and its PhotoSynth technology.

Here are some screens of a “synth” of Seattlits Safeco Field (which really don’t do justice to Photosynth):

Here’s one of an art gallery:

These are still images, but there’s something very “cinematic” about Photosynth. But unlike video the user can pan or zoom in on any individual image. It can thus go from very “macro” views to extreme closeups. One can imagine it as a new kind of “storytelling” medium.

(See clarification below.)

However, GeoSynth has been around since last October. The new implementation would seem to be a stepped up version of what Microsoft has already been doing. Photosynth images are currently available on Live Search Maps:

Currently most locations (that I checked) don’t have this feature. If Google were to add Flickr images, however, to StreetView it would instantly be more populated.

Heres an example where the new user images do exist, for the Paris monument Arc de Triomphe:

This is additional interesting information in Google Maps and will help reinforce Googleâ„¢ position as the mapping innovator. However, unknown to most people, Microsoft has this same capability too; and in many ways a much more interesting offering in the combination of Photosynth and Live Search Maps.

When Microsoftâ„¢ Birdâ„¢ Eye photography launched in 2006 it trumped Google Mapâ„¢ satellite imagery. But the novelty of that faded when StreetView showed up with the promise of an even closer look at buildings and locations in major cities around the world.

When Google was first developing StreetView Microsoft also was testing StreetSide, a comparable offering that showed similar street-level imagery. It never was formally rolled out. Yet Microsoft apparently has continued to collect this imagery using cars with mounted cameras. None of it has shown up on Live Search Maps (as far as I know).

The Fast Company article suggests that Microsoft is now preparing to make Photosynth a more direct competitor with Google™ StreetView. There are some challenges in doing that that revolve around getting good images from people and making the Photosynth integration with Live Search Maps a bit better, but it’s a very provocative idea.

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