This headline is pernicious clickbait. Why not say "Microsoft Invented a Google Earth precursor, but never took it seriously"? Because that would not force you

This headline is pernicious clickbait. Why not say "Microsoft Invented a Google Earth precursor, but never took it seriously"? Because that would not force you to click through to understand how they "totally blew it." Spoiler alert: They built TeraServer map service to demonstrate that their database product could handle a terabyte or more of data. They got tons of user interest, but didn't use the information they got from searches or the user emails to iterate on their project. They could have developed a dominant mapping service (the author's thesis, sort of), but they let the project languish.