January 2008 - Bing Maps Blog

1. 

   Google Suggests Using Microsoft MapCruncher

   01/29/08 by Chris Pendleton | 3 Replies |

   Being the Microsoft Virtual Earth Platform Evangelist, I'm all about getting the word out about Microsoft mapping products. There is a greater good in what I do, however and that is to get people using mapping. Something like 82% of all data in the world has a location component, so what better way to display that data than on a map? All kinds of data are creeping out of those spreadsheets and databases and getting themselves plotted onto a map. Well, I couldn't help but notice that even Google has the same idea. For the greater good, their official Google Maps API Blog suggests using Microsoft MapCruncher for creating custom maps atop of Google maps. That's just awesome. The idea behind MapCruncher...
2. 

   New Imagery, January 2008

   01/26/08 by Chris Pendleton | 4 Replies |

   27+ TB of imagery have just been added to Virtual Earth. 3D Cities USA Redding, CA Colorado Springs, CO Fort Collins, CO Des Moines, IA Sioux City, IA Waterloo, IA Boise City, ID Decatur, IL Ann Arbor, MI Dearborn, MI Flint, MI Kalamazoo, MI Lansing, MI Lincoln, NE Omaha, NE Reno, NV Ogden, UT Bellingham, WA Kenosha-Racine, WI Ortho Aerial Imagery (Microsoft Proprietary) USA Ann Arbor, MI Bellingham, WA Boise City, ID Colorado Springs, CO Decatur, IL Des Moines, IA Flint, MI Fort Collins, CO Kalamazoo, MI Kenosha-Racine, WI Lansing, MI Lincoln, NE Omaha, NE Redding, CA Reno, NV Sioux City, IA Waterloo, IA Japan Added level 19 tiles (previously stopped at 18) Oblique Aerial Imagery (Pictometry...
3. 

   Come See Me At MIX 2008

   01/23/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   Vegas baby, Vegas! March 5-7. 2008 - MIX 2008 - be there or be square. I'll be presenting a level 200 how to session called " Developing Applications with Microsoft Virtual Earth ." I'll talk features, I'll talk code, I'll talk business examples and I'll give you every reason to get cracking on the next killer mapping application after losing all your money at the craps table. Register online and get there because this is THE SHOW for Microsoft online technologies. $200 discount if you register before January 31, 2008. And, it's at The Venetian which is just sick - the gelato stand near the gondolas inside is unbeatable. Make it happen. CP
4. 

   Yellow Pages Group (Canada)

   01/23/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   The Yellow Pages Group published a press release about their launch with Virtual Earth. Read below. I took a screen shot of Tim Horton's locations in British Columbia - I've heard it's the best donut in Canada, so maybe someone can send me some. (Chris Pendleton, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA, 98052). I actually surprised myself at how good our imagery was in Vancouver - toot, toot! Owe, that was my arm breaking... Yellow Pages Group Strengthens Connection Between Buyers and Sellers With Microsoft Virtual Earth Powerful mapping platform provides a richer Web experience MISSISAUGA, ONTARIO and MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Jan. 22, 2008) - Microsoft Canada Co. and Yellow Pages Group (YPG) announced...
5. 

   Live Search Racing Team

   01/22/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   Virtual Earth is a part of the Live Local Search team which is a part of the Live Search team which is a part of Windows Live which is a part of Microsoft. This helps you understand the brand a bit more and helps me justify posting some exciting news about Microsoft's contributions to Children's Hospital. Live Search and Team Seattle are going to the Daytona Motor Speedway this weekend for the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race. As a primary sponsor of Team Seattle, we are committed to helping them reach their goal of raising $700,000 for Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. To learn how you can support Team Seattle, and follow along with the team leading up to and during the race, we’ve turned over...
6. 

   KSPR - Springfield, MO

   01/22/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   The list of broadcasters using Virtual Earth continues to grow. KSPR in Springfield, MO is now leveraging Virtual Earth to illustrate their weather news cast. Throughout this broadcast they actually use our aerial imagery (ortho) and 3D (seen below). It's exciting to see so many broadcasters adopting our mapping technologies in so many different ways. After all, the news is local and it's all about WHERE you are, so why not use mapping to better highlight a story? And if you're going to use mapping you may as well use Microsoft Virtual Earth . :) CP
7. 

   Cleveland Rocks!

   01/21/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   O-HIO! This is pretty awesome. The State of Ohio's Department of Transportation has rolled out a site for all you Buckeyes (and those of you living in the Ohio who didn't go to The Ohio State University). Navigate to BuckeyeTraffic.org and you'll see a huge map (love that) with a number of filters on the left. Now, this is not your basic traffic site...not by a long shot. This site has tons of useful information for those traveling through the heart of our country. Check out these filters: Closures & Restrictions Closures Restrictions Road & Weather Sensors Ice Snow Wet Dry Error Other Outdated Road Activity Accident Debris Disabled Vehicle Flooding Roadwork Snow / Ice Other Web Cameras...
8. 

   VE and the BBC

   01/21/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   The British Broadcast Corporation has agreed to use Virtual Earth. The plane crash at Heathrow was detailed in this article on the BBC News web site. The article included many illustrations about the accident and the plane itself, but also included a map of the area highlighting the points of interest around the effected area. This allows their readers to get a better understanding of exactly where the plane stopped, where the plane touched down, and where these touch points are with respect to the south runway, a nearby car park and most importantly a residential area. Maps and (more specifically) aerial imagery are a great way to further illustrate a news article and really drive the point...
9. 

   Visualizing Broadcast Areas in Virtual Earth

   01/21/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

   Our Microsoft Certified Partners SpatialPoint are at it again. They've published a new visualization tool for viewing radio broadcast signal coverage areas by station at FollowTheGame.com . The theme for the application is football, so you can stay tuned to the big game(s) while you're driving state to state. You'll know what radio station to tune into depending on where you are; however, you can imaging how useful this might be for radio stations in general - and what a great marketing tool this would be for Satellite radio (I'm a Sirius subscriber myself). I performed a search from Bellevue (home) to San Diego (hometown) to "pat" the Chargers on the back for a game well played - Hey! They made...
10. 

    Live Search Maps China Tops Google and Baidu

    01/21/08 by Chris Pendleton | 1 Replies |

    I can't read this article , but some of my cohort here in Redmond can. The folks at ZOL (CNET) have rated Live Search Maps China higher than both Google Maps China and Baidu Maps. ZOL specified that Live Search Maps China was better because of the "superior user interface, integration with local search result, personalization and bus transit." Okay, I had someone translate that for me. Kudos to the product team for building out such a user friend, content heavy site for China. For more information on Live Search Maps China you can read a previous post I published detailing the site. CP
11. 

    3DVia Survey

    01/21/08 by Chris Pendleton | 5 Replies |

    For those of you who have used the 3DVia toolset for creating 3D models and injecting them into Live Search Maps, the folks at Dassault Systems are looking for your feedback. I received a link to the survey which seems to have some kind of identifier, but feel free to use my link anyway. Perhaps the token on the redirected URL will also be unique. I haven't had the best experience with the performance of the toolkit, so I'll be providing my feedback to them about that. I invite you to do the same. If you're not familiar with 3DVia...during the install of the 3D component from Live Search Maps you get prompted to install 3DVia. You can also download it from their product page . It's a bit of a...
12. 

    Chargers Take Down Patriots!

    01/18/08 by Chris Pendleton | 2 Replies |

    Heck yes I'm backing my home team! I met some girl in a bar last year. I don't know her name, but it was the weekend before the Chargers and Patriots played in the Divisional round of the AFC playoffs. The Chargers were 14-2 and the Patriots were limping into San Diego as a wildcard contender. She was from Boston and talked all kinds of crap on my boys. I told her Shawne Merriman was going to knock Brady out in the first quarter, LT would run for 200 yards and it wouldn't even be close. Well, she's been laughing at me while I ate crow for the last year. Actually, she probably forgot me immediately, but that's neither here nor there. As the saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. And...
13. 

    Weather Central

    01/18/08 by Chris Pendleton | 2 Replies |

    Jerry Skaw from The Virtual Earth Public Sector Marketing Team posted a blog entry highlighting how some Local News Stations are Leveraging Virtual Earth . Roger Mall and I work closely on media outlets for Virtual Earth, so what you see in the Seattle News area is large in part to our efforts (mostly Roger).:) in any case, I thought it would be prudent to discuss how some of these are coming about. Weather Central as become a value Microsoft partner. They have software which many of the news stations use and after some incredible integration efforts from their dev team, local stations around the US are leveraging Virtual Earth for their news broadcasts! I worked closely with Weather Central...
14. 

    Virtual Earth Innovation at Harley-Davidson

    01/17/08 by Chris Pendleton | 3 Replies |

    Hopefully, by now you are all aware of the Great Roads application which Harley-Davidson rolled out in late 2006. It was a sleek interface with brand retention and allowed us to demonstrate some strong evidence of how powerful VE integration can be in the enterprise. Additionally, it provided an example of cross brand pollination and monetization opportunities by showing Best Western hotels on their Great Roads application – a practical service for their riders providing them with hotel information when the routes were too long to complete in a single day. Well, H-D continues to be a showcase as they recently launched their new applications…yes, as in two new applications. This time around the...