(July 26 2005) MSN has launched a beta version of its MSN Virtual Earth service, a response to Google’s similar Google Earth service.

MSN Virtual Earth, which so far covers North America only, lets users search for areal photos of towns and areas, and zoom in on buildings, shops and services.

If you let your mouse hover over a registered building on an areal photograph, a small pop up window will give you information about this facility, driving directions and more.

You may save a screen shot of a particular search result as a “permalink”, meaning that you can find the exact photo and the additional information again at a later time.

Search Engine Watch has more.