User Outcry Forces Microsoft to Undo U.K. Move to Multimap

Feedback from users in the U.K. forced Microsoft to undo an automatic redirect of LiveMap users to the Multimap service.

According to a blog posting by James Senior, a technology specialist at Microsoft, the company has stopped automatically sending requests for the LiveMaps service to the Multimap online mapping service because users were unhappy with the switch.

"You'll be glad to hear that Live Maps UK is no longer redirecting Multimap -- well done for all your feedback -- we made a difference and changed their mind!" Senior wrote in the posting.

Microsoft purchased Multimap in December 2007, a move that was meant to help expand the company's online advertising strategy. However, it could have been an unwise investment if users continue to reject Multimap in favor of the mapping services Microsoft already offers.

Senior unveiled the switch of U.K. users from Microsoft's Live Maps to Multimap in an April 11 blog entry, and users immediately began posting to the blog to protest.

"One man's 'upgrade' is another man's 'downgrade,'" wrote one user, who identified himself as Blake Handler. "It appears that your new U.K. maps are actually not as good as the maps you already had!"

"This is shocking," wrote another user who identified himself as Peter. "Live Maps were really good, Multimap is a shocking pile of rubbish. Bring back the old maps. I'll be just using Google Maps from now on it seems."

Users even formed a Facebook group to protest the move, according to a blog entry on Microsoft's Virtual Earth/Live Maps blog, which outlined the debacle.

The posting explained that the Multimap switch was meant to give Live Maps users a trial run of some new services and let them decide which mapping service they wanted to use. However, it did not go as planned.

The main issue was that a bug caused all requests for the Live Maps page to redirect users to Multimap, which was not supposed to be the case. Moreover, "prominent links" that would allow users to return to Live Maps from Multimap if they chose to do so did not appear as planned. "It was an ugly situation indeed," according to the posting.

Once informed of the resumption of the Live Maps service, users seemed placated and requested that Microsoft continue using Live Maps as its U.K. mapping service.

"Please don't link from MSN to Multimaps again," said one user called "Ant," who responded to the Virtual Earth/Live Maps blog posting. "It's clear Live Maps is a better service. Don't give people yet another reason to change from the MSN default homepage when they buy a new computer."