After few weeks ago Microsoft announced new features and an improved Live Search, now the final updates were unveiled. Live Search will offer to its consumers free 411 information, mobile maps containing real-time traffic information and voice-activated mobile search.

For example, Microsoft said that the new Live Search is able to offer more accurate and easy-to-use driving directions by integrating dynamic rerouting based on real-time traffic information.

Also, Microsoft has extended the 3D imagery which now covers 80 percent of the U.S. population and nearly 200 complete cities are available. In addition, people who use Live Search Maps can create and share their own 3-D models of buildings through an alliance with Dassault Systemes.

As for the mobile enhancements of its Live Search, Microsoft announced Live Search for Windows Mobile with voice input which now includes gas prices, and hours of operation for businesses. The service can also use Global Positioning System (GPS) data on GPS-enabled phones to provide location-aware local search for customers.

Microsoft also rolled out Live Search 411, a service developed with Tellme Networks, a company acquired by Microsoft earlier this year. The new toll-free number will be available for anyone using any kind of phone to access the power of Live Search. Users can simply dial (800) CALL-411 (800-225-5411) and say the city and state, then ask for the business or business category to hear a list of options. Users say, “Connect me,” to instantly connect to the business.

Last month, Microsoft announced that the Redmond’s engineers have focused on improving the relevance and they apparently achieved that by quadrupling the size of Live Search’s index, “which means we can return the right results for your searches.”

The larger index coverage, completed by the use of advanced ranking algorithms, auto-spell correction and better stop word handling, lays the foundation not only for better search-results, but also provides Microsoft with a solid background when dealing with the continuous expansion of the Web. Apparently, the increase in indexed content ranges from 5 billion pages to more than 20 billion, and Microsoft said that it had come up with a new way of extracting data from the Web which automatically adds information from specific domains to the data base, including ratings and reviews; businesses (locations, contact information, photos, hours of operation, ratings and reviews); celebrities (buzz, images and videos) and more.

Still, according to the latest data released by comScore Microsoft’s Live Seearch is lagging far behind its main competitors Yahoo and Google.

comScore said that in August MSN and Live Search had handled 2,2 billions searches compared to 31 billion searches on Google and 8 million searches on Yahoo.