A new major revision of Live Maps was released today, with a number of new features and enhancements.  At the top of the list is Firefox (v 1.5 or later) support for 3D mapping.  In addition, memory management and cache performance has been improved for the IE version.  3D support is now also included for the Space Navigator, a 3D controller made by 3dConnexion, a Logitech company.

There's lots more in this release, too:

RSS subscriptions for Collections: Subscribe to a Live Maps collection and stay up to date as collections change.

GeoRSS, special markup that can pass geographic information from Live Maps to other mapping applications is also now supported.

Area Calculations and Drawing Enhancements:  Find the area of a shape you draw on the map (in sq ft, acres, sq km, etc)

Ratings and Reviews of Business Listings: Read reviews of businesses entered by other users, or add your own.

Re-order items on the Scratchpad by drag n drop

Traffic and Driving Directions enhancements:  Create a route in Live Maps, and if traffic info is available it will automatically appear.

Live Search Maps for Outlook updated: including 3D mapping.

Some new cities have also been updated to include 3D, including Portland, Oregon.

Read all about the new enhancements on the Live Maps /Virtual Earth blog, with more details promised for upcoming posts.