Changes to Windows Live Maps

They are doing some cool stuff over at local.live.com.  These changes seem to have went live in the last day or so.  They have simplified the interface and added some new functionality.

How about the ability to have a traffic-based route?  Like take me the way the traffic isn’t?  It gives you the route with any notes on congestion or accidents as well as the time to get to the destination figuring any of the obstacles.  Pretty cool. 

One feature I heard about in the beta, but doesn’t seem to be in production is intelligent directing options.  These allow you to skip the first few directions that would get you to a certain point.  In other words, I know how to get to the major interstate from my house, so don’t give me directions for that part of the route.  Neat!