Local versions of Hotmail are available in French, German, and Japanese. You can set up language preferences during the registration process. That roar you heard was the genealogy research community shouting in approval. The search engine on this site covers not only the 35 million names in the Ancestral file, and 285 million names in the International Genealogical Index, but also Web sites which cover genealogy. You may enter a single name, or the name of an ancestor and their parents for very targeted searching.
Peaks are where information is most dense.
You can move your mouse over the map, and see the topics represented by the peak. By clicking, you can see individual stories and summaries. This is a fascinating way of exploring large amounts of information, but you'll need a fast connection to make the most of it. My experience with the site was mixed. On the first page of results I got a pointer to Ray Price Harley-Davidson, which is actually in Raleigh, North Carolina.