Windows Live is Microsoft’s repackaging of its web services, and Windows Live Local is to Virtual Earth what Google Local (see previous entry) is to Google Maps. (Or have I got that backwards?)

Anyway, Windows Live Local went live this morning. Unfortunately I’ve got a pile of errands to do today, so I couldn’t give it more than a cursory run-through. It does not work in Safari (there’s a surprise), but it does work in Firefox. Presumably it works even better in IE, but I’m not able to test that at the moment.

Bird’s-eye images are available for a few locations — about 25 per cent of the U.S., according to the Directions article announcing the launch — but their implementation, again, at least in my brief test using Firefox, is a little wonky. The images do not appear to be fluid or scrollable in the way that the aerial imagery and maps are, and occasionally I click on the icon that says “There is Bird’s Eye imagery available for this location” and get a notice that says it isn’t. I’ll chalk that up to beta status and the fact that it’s only day one. Stuff happens. On the location I tested — Boston — there are two levels of zoom in the bird’s-eye imagery.

More eventually.

Update, 8:45 AM: All Points Blog covers the launch; Adena notes the clunkiness and takes some (deserved) shots at the “Live Local” name.

Update, 9:45 AM: Cartography calls the bird’s-eye-view stuff “more interesting than useful” and also has this to say: “Unfortunately, Live Local doesn’t succeed in the basics of online mapping: finding addresses. Searching for addresses in the United States is no problem but anything beyond its borders fails miserably.”