So here’s the deal. I’m not really a microsoft person, but I checked out their “isometric view” of the maps (here’s New York) and I instantly thought of one thing – Sim City! First of all the idea itself is pretty awesome to show it this way, the perspective makes the cities more memorable as a landscape, rather than just a top-view photo.  But what can be done with it ?

Well for once – using the API which I think would be given out anyway – a new type of social sim-city style game could be created.  Let’s for one moment think that we can “destroy it all” and put nice, green grass everywhere. Then we’ll have a few types of buildings, some roads, other elements, and combine it to create a district of our own, based on the natural landscape of our city, with it’s rivers, islands, whatever. Other people can of course join the fun and start building a district of their own in the same city. Maybe even a better city-planner could be found that way (choosing the best guy for the job while working on a semi-real thing would probably make more sense than choosing him based on just promises). Possibilities are endless.

And yes – of course google is doing something similar as well – letting people build their own buildings and all. So a bunch of free API’s from both of the big fish could actually give someone with the guts to do such project, plenty of choices.