No Live Maps for UK Users? We have the workaround

Many UK Live Maps users this morning have found that when they go to http://maps.live.com/ they are being rather unceremoniously dumped on the doorstep of MultiMap. You might remember that Microsoft bought Multimap back in December, and now, for UK users, Multimap is all you can use. Or is it…? Whilst this decision seems [to most] to be a bizarre decision, there are some advantages with MultiMap, for example, you can see how many cash points there are in the map area.

However, if I want to check that information, I would go to MultiMap, but if I type in the Live Maps address, I do expect to see Live Maps, and in this post, I will show you after the jump how easy it is to get your regular Live Maps back in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. All we will be doing is changing what language the browser tells the webpage to use.

There is one other way of getting Live Maps if you can’t do either of the above, and that’s by going to http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-us and you’ll get Live Maps.

What do you think about this decision by Microsoft? Do you like it? Or do you think it’s as baffling as we do?

Internet Explorer

  1. Go to Tools > Options
    image
  2. Click on the Languages button at the bottom
    image
  3. Click Add, and choose English (United States) [en-US], and put it at the top of the list (that’s important!), as per the above screenshot.
  4. Click OK twice to go back to Internet Explorer, then go to http://maps.live.com/ and you will get your regular Live Maps back.

Firefox

  1. Go to Tools > Options > Advanced
    image
  2. Click Choose
  3. Select English/United States [en-us] and add that, again, putting it to the top of the list
    image
  4. OK out of those windows and go to http://maps.live.com/ and you will get your regular Live Maps back.

Comments

  • donavon

    Scott, I think you mean:
    http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-us

  • ScottIsAFool

    I do indeed :) Will change that now :D Brain not with it today…

  • reportered

    Thanks for the workaround; I was not pleased to get multimap instead of windows live maps this morning especially as there features are different (no collections) and no integration with windows live id’s either – do I really want another sign-on too?

    Whats are you doing Microsoft!

    I also noticed http://www.live.com now goes back to the ‘personalized’ page too – is this a new change as well?

  • Jamie

    This is not just Live Maps UK.

    Spain, Australia & NZ also redirects

    http://maps.live.com/?mkt=es-es
    http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-au
    http://maps.live.com/?mkt=en-nz

    = http://www.multimap.com/?mkt=en-au & en-nz, es-es

    Other common European or English
    French (fr-fr) = Live maps France
    English Canada (en-ca) = Live Maps Canada
    French Canada (fr-ca) = Live Maps France
    Germany (de-de) has an sponsership ‘suchenode’ but still live map branding (Live Maps Germany)
    Italy (it-it) = Live Maps Italy

    if anyone else finds ‘affected markets these need adding to this list

  • Justin Drerup

    I agree with the article – if I wanted Multimap I’d go to their website. I’m a big Microsoft fan however this has just given me a good reason to go straight to Google Maps. Yes I can click on the link with the US market set but it means that I have to scroll to the UK (my region) each time the map loads.

    I also have a number of collections saved that I can’t get to from the Multimap page. Someone at Microsoft seems to really have thought this one through…

  • Khristopher

    Microsoft just continues to get lamer! Way to go guys. You lost more of your users to Google. LOL.

  • BV2312

    didn’t someone already mention this in a comment? ;)

  • LosHavros

    Google Maps, here I come. Why?
    - Where’s 3D?
    - Multimap takes aaaaaaages to load map data, compared to Live Maps
    - I don’t like the look and feel
    - etc etc

    Multimap says: “new features put you in the driving seat”
    If anything, I feel like I have ceded a measure of control of what I can do to Multimap.

    This begs the question, if Microsoft wanted to use Multimap branding, why not just re-brand Live Maps? Microsoft invest heavily into Live Maps, and then do this?!??!

    The ONLY plus side, just check London in both Multimap and Live Maps. In multimap, they use data from Collins Bartholomew which is very nice. That’s the only complement I can think of.

    This has turned into a bit of a rant on my part, but understandably- I’m very annoyed.

  • BV2312

    MSN.co.uk gadget on the left uses MultiMap too but i did notice that they have traffic infomation, question is… when will they integrate that information with Live Maps (Uk)

  • BV2312

    ooops i mean right sorry

  • Vasudev

    Also you will not be redirected to MultiMap, if you use local.live.com or live.maps.com .
    Try it .

  • SteveBallmer

    No big loss!
    Everything over there is old and broken down anyhow!

    http://fakesteveballmer.mypodcast.com/index.html

  • Mephiles

    I hate it. Why can’t they just move all of the MultiMap features onto Live Search Maps? What’s stopping them?

  • quikboy

    I heard from another commenter on another site that he talked with one of the guys, and the Live Maps team is considering switching it back.

    Why they ever tried pulling UK users to Live Maps, I don’t know. At least they’re fixing it.

    @SteveBalmer : Stop spamming!

  • Chris

    Given the number of referrals we’re getting from google about this issue, clearly this isn’t a popular decision by the team. I’m wondering if they had a contractual obligation to do the redirect it as it seems like such a bizarre decision.

  • Vasudev

    Live Maps is back for UK users. check it.