Windows Live Local has, truly, improvements in interface and features as compared with Virtual Earth, which has been the name for this ajaxian mapping app since July 2005 until Dec 2005.

But, there have been functionality loses in this transition as well. The permalinks that we made with Virtual Earth, like this one that I collected, no longer work.

Perma-link. It looked like a promise to users, but just 5 months, that's what permanent meant, apparently.

The new Windows Live Local also promises permalinks: I hope that they last longer. Most can be generated dinamically, like the previous ones in Virtual Earth, but not the most interesting ones: the new birdeye oblique hi-resolution imagery available for several US cities. Permalinks can be generated, but there's no way to construct them dinamically, as there is a scene variable that can't be guessed from latitude and longitude... A dissapointment, really: if URLs for the hi-resoluton views could be created dinamically, the mapping application would get more inbound links, as webmasters could provide more interesting direct links towards the awesome vistas in Windows Live Local...

These lines above, I posted them also at Topix.net's new functionality, User Stories. No HTML handled, as you can see here but, however, at this moment, the article is in the Microsoft section of that news aggregator.

However, we adjusted Tagzania to the new Windows Live environment, including a new bookmarklet to save those new awesome bird-eye vistas in your Tagzania accunt. For instance, suppose you get to the Luxor Casino pyramid in Las Vegas.

Once there, click on the permalink option:

A box will appear at the middle of the interface, with a long address on it. Click on that long permalink address. Having done that, now you can click on our special bookmarklet for Windows Live, and you can save that location on Tagzania.