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This is a series of articles published by Kai Fu Lee. I did the translation after graduation from university in summer to learn more about the technology trend and practise my translation skill.

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Translation of Kaifu Lee’s post on LinkedIn - Map Your way to Science Fiction

李开复LinkedIn文章翻译之九 - 把你的方向和科幻小说对应起来

As mobile usage becomes more prominent, one technology that dramatically rises in value is Maps. Mobile devices become location-aware, which can provide much end-user and commercial value. It’s interesting to compare the Google and Microsoft vision for maps.

随着手机的使用变得越来越普遍，有一种技术的价值正在极大地增加，那就是地图。移动设备变得能感知位置，能提供很多端用户和商业价值。比较一下谷歌和微软对地图的愿景你会发现很有意思。

Google started early with the Keyhole acquisition that augmented maps with satellite images. Then Google Street View captured a huge number of photos alongside the streets. As the photos are captured, so are the maps, so Google essentially owned a mapping company. The recent Google car that drives itself undoubtedly leverages this accurate mapping. Maps have also become the center for finding places. So Google’s map vision might be “precisely map the earth, and take you anywhere”.

谷歌很早就启动了针对用卫星图片增强地图的Keyhole（Google Earth的前身）公司的收购。然后谷歌街景沿着街道采集了大量的照片。随着照片被采集，地图也被采集了，所以谷歌本质上来说拥有了一家测绘公司。最近自动驾驶的谷歌汽车毫无疑问扩充了这种精确的测绘。地图也已变成了寻找地点的核心。所以，谷歌的地图愿景也许是“精确地画出地球，把你带到任何地方”。

Less known is Microsoft’s maps organization. It is a part of the “Information platform and experiences” unit. In addition to maps, this unit also includes conversational understanding, maps, imagery and apps, augmented reality and information discovery. This looks more like an intelligent, agent-based delegation interface, which shows you all that is around you, helps you discover and find things, also understand the things that you see, and allow you to interact with them, all using a natural spoken interface. This vision might be “conversational interface that is knowledgeable about all that is around you.”

微软的地图组就没那么有名了。它是“信息平台和体验”组的一部分。除了地图之外，这个组还包括会话理解，地图，影像和应用程序，增强现实和信息发现。这看起来更像是一个智能的、基于代理的授权界面，向你展示你周围所有的一切，帮助你发现和寻找事物，也懂得你看到的东西，并允许你和它们互动，所有这些都利用一个自然的口语界面。这个愿景可能是“对你周围所有事物都有渊博知识的会话界面”。

Google’s future is more like Batmobile in Batman. Microsoft’s is more like the Terminator’s user interface. And both visions are in the Minority Report. Which do you prefer?

谷歌的未来更像蝙蝠侠中的蝙蝠车。微软的则更像终结者的用户界面。两种愿景在未来报告中都有。你更喜欢哪种呢？