Blogs

As Chris points out, we are coming up on our next Customer Service Release for MapPoint Web Service.  There are some great updates you have been asking for included in this CSR2 release, including: Improvements to geocoding in the US – With a new geocoding engine for the US, we are seeing substantially better performance for address find requests in the US in our testing.  Improvements in stability, speed and...
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John L. Scott, one of the premier residential real estate companies in the US, has updated their website to include a great new search serice powered by Virtual Earth.  Their implementation really makes great use of VE to provide better search through the use of the interactive map and road, aerial and bird’s eye views and more useful details with the inclusion of routing/directions on each property details page. ...
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YELLOWPAGES.COM recently announced the launch of its Virtual Earth powered, next-generation mapping service.  Thanks to the many options for visualization, routing, and other location services in VE, YellowPages.com is able to deliver consumers more options for mapping, viewing and connecting with local businesses. In March 2006, the YellowPages.com network reached more than 27 million unique users. So, check out...
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FOX Interactive Media’s new MyFox service recently lit up some new functionality powered by Virtual Earth.  Their new service, currently in Beta (aren’t we all these days), includes local traffic flow and incident reports layered on an easy to use and navigate Virtual Earth Map Control. They are rolling out a bunch of cities as I write this–including New York, Birmingham, LA, DC, Dallas, Boston, and more.  When...
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Zillow.com, one of the web’s premier sites for residential real estate, including finding the unique Zestimateâ„¢ price for a home, has recently added bird’s eye imagery from the Virtual Earth platform. Today, they are only using bird’s eye in a few of the supported cities, but they will support additional cities in the near future. The Virtual Earth Map...
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LoopNet, the #1 commercial real estate service online, recently launched a new map search service built on Virtual Earth.  The LoopNet solution utilizes Virtual Earth to provide an autorefreshing query for commercial real estate based on the VE Map Control.  That lets their customers use the map as an additional filter in their search, finding only properties in the exact areas they care about.  The unique bird’s eye...
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Often I find developers asking questions about what kinds of applications have been built on Virtual Earth, other than the generally mashup oriented stuff on www.ViaVirtualEarth.com.  Basically, what commercial reference implementations exist.  So, I am going to start posting some to this blog to give you an idea of what is out there and inspiration for what can be built.  I have a backlog of them, so stay...
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The folks over at Via Virtual Earth have started up a forum thread on the free-to-use, ad supported “commercial control”, trying to get feedback on what you think microsoft should do different or the same as we prepare for future versions.  If you have an opinion we would love to hear from you, so please chime in. 
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As you may have noticed already, as I have gotten a few comments, URLs that used to lead to MapPoint Web Service information on www.microsoft.com now redirect to a site branded as Virtual Earth.   What’s up?  Did we change the name of the MapPoint Web Service?  Is this a new version?  It is much more simple than that actually: We are combining our two primary services components, Virtual Earth Map Control...
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Dare Obasanjo recently posted a good article to XML.com highlighting how he built a Virtual Earth mashup for finding movies in Seattle.  It is worth a read if you are brushing up on how to bind your data to the Map Control. 
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