These days when someone is looking for directions and they are somewhat internet-savvy, they know there are more choices than my old favorite, MapQuest (still good, just no longer my personal choice). Most of these people seem to prefer Google Maps… but me, I’m a Live Maps kind of guy—and here I’ll show you why…
1) Both Google Maps and Live Maps have the basic street view which looks pretty similar. Google’s, however, looks a bit more detailed with 3-D wireframes of buildings in some areas and extra information like bus stops. Personally a wireframe of the building doesn’t help me that much but the bus stops feature is nice.
Google Street View: 
Live Street View:
2) Again, not much of a difference between Live and Google when it comes to satellite imagery. I will, however, give this round to Live for its seemingly more recent shots (of this specific area at least, other areas could be different) and it looks like Live is an exact overhead while Google is very slightly angled (most noticeable in the upper left corner).
Google Satellite View:
Live Aerial View:
3) One of my favorite features is the “traffic” layover on both services. Live had this feature a few months before Google, but they seem to have caught up in a big way and it looks great. Personally I find the graphic overlay at Live to be a little easier to see at a quick glance than the Google version… Something about the highlight is easier to differentiate from the rest of the maps while Google’s looks too similar to roads and is a little tougher for me to differentiate (personal preference perhaps, but hey it’s just my opinion… tell me if you disagree).
Google Traffic Overlay:
Live Traffic Overlay:
4) Both services have a few extras thrown into the mix: Google’s Terrain view and Live’s BirdsEye view. Unless I’m trying to figure out the best place to go during a flood, I’m not sure what the terrain view is really good for, but it sure looks cool zoomed out! However, I have to give the “extras” win to Live on this one since BirdsEye is a much more useful feature. For me this is huge when I’m going to location I’ve never been to and I want to get a better idea of what the building I’m going to looks like or perhaps parking. Yes the satellite view helps with this as well, but personally this view helps me visualize it much better.
Google Terrain View:
Live Bird's Eye View:
5) As you can see, driving directions and routing are very simple to accomplish in Google or Live these days. In this test I found myself liking the extra features both of them had to offer depending on my situation. Google allows you to drag your route to change it… so for example if you want to avoid a certain road or specific highway, just drag around it and poof it re-routes no problem. That’s great when I know what I’m doing. However, sometimes I have no idea what’s best… so I really like Live’s ability to create a route based on shortest distance or specifically avoid traffic. So in this case I often use both services to get the best directions possible.
Google Driving Directions:
Live Driving Directions:
There are definitely more features like finding restaurants and seeing reviews and ratings in-line with phone numbers and addresses, emailing and blogging the info you see, creating your own maps and pushpins, etc. But I rarely find myself using those extras and it seems that most of them are available on both services… if you feel strongly about something I omitted by all means please do share 
For those of you who like to live on the edge, here's a preview of a street-view Live Maps that may be coming to a neighborhood near you soon:
It allows you to use your cursor keys to "drive" your car through the streets and get a picture-iffic view of the streets up close and personal. Now I wonder if our Live team and X-Box crew can collaborate on a new PGR that uses this.... that would be interesting!
So which service do I use? Mostly Live Maps, and sometimes the other options just to make sure. How about you?
