Blogs

Lately we have focused a great deal here on Microsoft Virtual Earth as a key component of vertical search applications, from customer facing real estate sites to internally facing BI applications.  But, there is also a great deal of utility to using Virtual Earth as part of your basic marketing activities, whether in your ads or in your website as a tool for prospective customers.  Location is a key part of many (I would even venture...
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For anyone who wants to know more about the benefits of integrating Microsoft Virtual Earth into your application, we now have a number of case studies exploring the benefits some of our customers have received from integrating the platform into their solutions.  This first set focus on one of the more prominent verticals to have adopted VE thus far, real estate, but the lessons learned will apply to any number of different...
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Attention developers currently using or evaluating Virtual Earth Map Control or MapPoint Web Service; we’re conducting a satisfaction survey and would like you to evaluate the level and quality of services you’re receiving from Microsoft. This information will be used to identify areas where we are doing well and where we need to make improvements. This survey is being conducted by MarketTools, an independent research firm. Unless you...
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The news is out, here, there and everywhere.  Microsoft Virtual Earth and Windows Live Local are live with support for Australia. The developer features include: Geo-coding and parsing for Australian addresses Aerial imagery for major Australian cities (more coverage to come) Maps and routing for major cities and highways/freeways across the country Local search results for Australia and more… The new coverage and...
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Michael Scherotter over at MindJet just posted a great description of how he integrated Virtual Earth with the MindManager tool to plan a trip.  Pretty interesting concept of how different tools can come together to provide a flexible interface for this kind of activity.
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This might sound lately like it is becoming a real estate blog, but I just got wind of this press release from Grubb & Ellis.  The applications they have built so far are internally facing (VE is a great way to make brokers more productive, among other BI and visualization benefits), but the search on their public site is powered by the LoopNet/Microsoft Virtual Earth solution.
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Next week, at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference, where you will find Microsoft’s Virtual Earth team in presentations, our booth, and around the conference, developers may want to check out the Microsoft Developer Day.  Steve Lombardi, PM for the Map Control and Windows Live Local’s collections feature, among many other things, and Chandu Thota, Virtual Earth developer/author/blogger, will be among a great list of...
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Another residential real estate broker has launched a new VE powered site. Coldwell Banker Bain, a popular North West realtor, has launched an interactive home search which you can find linked from their home page. It looks like the real estate bar has been raised with large numbers of commercial and residential real estate providers moving to Virtual Earth, including: Zillow, Fidelity’s FNIS, John L Scott, RE3W, LoopNet, MRIS, and many...
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We are happy to announce the availability of version 3 of the Virtual Earth Map Control.  This exciting new control comes with dozens of enhancements, including new features not available in any of the previous versions, simpler integration, better compatibility, and much much more. New Features Like using maps, aerial imagery, and bird’s eye? Then you’ll love doing it with support for : Place/Address lookups (Geocoding...
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Microsoft Research has been working with Virtual Earth to develop a cool new application for overlaying information in the Map Control. Chris explains it better than I can: “The basic idea is that you can take any map in PDF format and overlay onto a Virtual Earth map. The benefit being that you can have your own specific map with the cool Virtual Earth draggable functionality, double click to zoom in, pan, etc. As an example, I can take a...
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