The Windows Live Local mapping and search service was recently updated with higher resolution views of Melbourne to bring it up to date with the same detail as for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

Panning around the Melbourne map will soon reveal that the aerial photography is about one or two years old but you'll recognise many landmarks. By the way the photographic images used in Windows Live Local are taken using five cameras, two on each side of the plane pointing down at an angle and the fifth pointing directly down.

It's the cameras placed at an angle that give side-views of buildings so the perspective is more realistic than if the photos were taken from directly above. Cities in the U.K. and U.S. that can be seen in bird's eye view use the same technique but with higher resolution photography.

Windows Live Local is not just about looking at buildings and well-known landmarks. It's as much a tool to use for searching, locating and contacting commercial services such as hotels and motels, plumbers, electricians, nurseries - in fact, any business listed in the Yellowpages.

For example, start Live Local, enter Rushworth in the city text box to position the map and then search for a local service you want to find (e.g. a plumber or hairdresser). The services available will be listed on the left of screen with address and phone number. When you pan the map away from Rushworth, the list changes according to available services in the map view.

You can also find locations and contact details of commerical services by searching from Live.com and choosing the Local scope.

webDotWiz has been making extensive use of Live Writer to update his webDotWiz Space. Those with a programming bent have been busy creating plugins that extend what Live Writer can do, whether it be to update Live Spaces or other blogging services.

As well others are documenting other ways to extend what Live Writer can do. So check out the Windows Live Writer plugins site for hints and tips as well as addons.

Windows Live QnA is where you can ask questions or offer answers to questions left by others. There are all sorts of topics covered and it's fun to look through a whole range of questions and give an answer where you can. Interestingly, you might sometimes see the QnA tab appear at the top of your search results when using Live Search so it'll probably be a feature in the future.