Expanding on the 3D map idea.
Imagine a search tool and mapping tool that is truly interactive, a kind of Bing Search/Maps meets Second Life. You go to Bing and search for a clothes shop in your area, and it offers the results, the routes to them, and you can fly over it or walk/drive through it in the virtual copy of the real World, and the environment reacts to your presence. You pass a shop and it not only tells you what the shop is but the underlying code makes it truly interactive - you can tap on the door and take a virtual tour, even a real 3D tour of the shop if the shop's owners pay for the Minecraft mod work to create the shop environment. You can browse their stock and click on items to download real shots of the products, place orders, talk to virtual staff, or carry out any interaction the game can be coded to allow. With the power of Azure behind it the same interface could run on mobile phones as on full desktops and provide an experience and service Google cannot currently match. Make access a free app purchase download and then charge those that create shops or sites inside the 'World'. It could be Second Life done right, based not on some fake world but on the real World, and there could be nice sideline of selling the game and development kits and pay-to-play virtual worlds (say a Minecraft MMPORPG mod of Arthurian Britain, only with real map data). Maybe not such a daft purchase after all.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
