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I recently was graced with the opportunity to sit in with Robert Hess the host of the Channel 9 online show, The Knowledge Chamber for an episode focused exclusively on Virtual Earth. During the Virtual Earth episode , I focus on the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control which is currently in community technology preview (CTP) form and available for download from Microsoft Connect . This episode is a result of my MIX Session earlier this year and covers the control at a high level, given we only had about 15 minutes! So, if you missed my MIX session, it’s worth a look-see to get the VESL 101 version of my presentation from Vegas. From The Knowledge Chamber site… Virtual Earth continues...
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Microsoft Virtual Earth now has a new name (and it’s not Kumo or Kiev). First, a little background to ensure we’re all on the same page. As of yesterday…. Live Search Maps was our consumer maps offering. This is the web site you go to for maps, aerial photos, directions, searching for points of interest and creating collections of your own personal data to store in the cloud. Live Search Maps is now called Bing Maps. Bing! That’s right, you know you’re going to do it every time you see the name. Bing! I digress. Microsoft Virtual Earth was our enterprise mapping platform. This was the set of APIs you would leverage to embed maps into your web site along with overlay data in the form of pushpins...
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I recently posted a little teaser entry about Virtual Earth and Windows 7 - Windows 7 Release Candidate Available…Where’s Virtual Earth? Well, now today there’s more to talk about (and you can expect news to continue to roll out as time goes on). Today, the Windows Team announced the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 . Why should my fellow Virtual Earthlings care? Because there’s a Virtual Earth application included with the Touch Pack called Microsoft Surface Globe… Microsoft Surface Globe pretty much puts the whole world in your hands (well, kind of!). It uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a 3D version of the world. Using multi-touch, you can navigate...
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Another month of web casts done. This month we focused on business intelligence applications using Microsoft Virtual Earth across the enterprise. The first web cast had tons of information thrown at you about the different scenarios for which you would need different BI applications across different verticals within the enterprise. In the second web cast, we focused on more architecture and the actual technologies behind bringing the applications to life. If you missed either of the web casts for May, you can watch them on demand via the Momentum web site. Using Virtual Earth Across the Enterprise (Level 100) - in-depth exploration of how to use the Virtual Earth platform as a data visualization...
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Today we’re announcing the rollout of Virtual Earth to the Content Delivery Network (a part of Microsoft's Edge Computing Network). What does this mean? Well, Virtual Earth has historically been in a single data center serving up all these billions of tile images (and the AJAX map control) which service our mapping platforms including the AJAX map control, Silverlight Map Control, Virtual Earth Web Service and 3D Managed Control. Now, we’ve deployed the Virtual Earth map tiles and AJAX control to geographically dispersed data centers that provide global load balancing which means you’ll get your Virtual Earth tiles and AJAX control from the data center that is closest to you...
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As a follow up to my presentation at MIX this year, I’ll be flying down under to attend REMIX – a sort of worldwide syndication of MIX. REMIX Australia will be held on Thursday, June 11 at the Star City Hotel in the Grand Harbour Ballroom at 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont NSW . My session, currently titled, “ Introducing the Microsoft Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP ” will cover the basics constructs of the Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control, how to integrate it into your applications and I’ll provide some demonstrations of applications that have been built using the control since the launch in March at MIX in Las Vegas . Of course, I have some tricks up...
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OnStar (a part of General Motors) today announced their new application to integrate Microsoft Virtual Earth into their emergency response system as a data visualization function to better serve their customers. And, do you blame them? What a huge value add this will be for helping them sell their service! With our super, high resolution photography and high fidelity road network information, wouldn’t you feel better knowing that in the case of an emergency the customer service representative can actually see a high resolution photo of where you, that’s relatively recently taken with up to date road data to help you get on your way? And, OnStar could tie into our local search listings...
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Okay, it’s been a long day, so let’s find today’s time waster to blow off some steam…ah, UMapper has a new Flash-based, Microsoft Virtual Earth game called “GeoDart .” The object? Click the aerial photo closest to location specified to identify where it is. The closer you are and the faster you respond, the more points you accumulate. Get a high score and you get bragging rights for the rest of the week. Enjoy, and apologize to your managers for me as productivity is about to go through the floor. There are currently two versions of the game UMapper game: States Countries and Capitals However, if you don’t like the current versions of the games, well...
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I just want to give IDV Solutions a huge shout out today. I dragged myself in to work after waking to another dreary Seattle morning. Hoping the coffee would perk me up…bring out the fail whale. However, this morning I finally got some time to investigate the latest version of IDV’s Visual Fusion (4.0) . After just a few clicks, I am re-inspired to take on the mapping world – which is good because I have a web cast here in 30 minutes! Visual Fusion is an enterprise mashup platform for creating interactive, visual applications utilizing the power of SharePoint. Integrate enterprise information, Web services, and unstructured workgroup files into a single interactive picture...
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MSN just launched a new version of their local offering dubbed, MSN City Guides (read the press release ). Okay, just another local listing site with maps, right? Oh, no…this one is the beginning of something pretty great and very community driven and it has Microsoft Virtual Earth . Fine, I’m skewed, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a shiny new toy. I set my location to Louisville, KY – I’m heading out there this week for the Pendleton Golf Invitational – a little view into my world for you. Anyway, by default, Louisville, KY is now my home location so when I return to City Guides it automagically suggests results related to Louisville. Now, let’s...
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The Knowledge of Real Estate – REonomy – launched May 1 leveraging Microsoft Virtual Earth as the first online information provider to integrated parcel data and comprehensive property research tools with a MLS and advanced marketing tools in one location ( press release ). REonomy.com serves the needs of real estate professionals industry-wide, including brokers, agents, development/management companies, lenders, third-party analysts, and private equity firms, among others. The REonomy site is locked down for registered users, but they gave me special access and permission to share what’s on the inside with you. I’ll focus on the mapping components, since that’s...
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A few months ago, Photosynth became a part of the Microsoft Virtual Earth team and shortly thereafter launched the availability for all users to create and upload Synths into our cloud storage. Of course, I had to take it a step further and integrate it with Virtual Earth - Photosynth Released - Now, Let's Mash it with Virtual Earth . Well, we’ve just announced some new capabilities and support for our commercial customers which make Photosynth enterprise ready and scaled out for the world to start taking advantage of. So, in true CP style, let me break this down for you (the full press release is below), but simply put here’s what you get with the updated, commercially viable version...
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With the release of Windows 7 RC to the world which you can now freely download from the Microsoft Windows web site , I figured I would at least let you know where Microsoft Virtual Earth fits into the equation. First off, there’s a location API built into the operating system. This means that from within Windows your applications can access a single API that will tell you where the user is. Well, any time you have location information it’s pretty much a given that you’ll want to see it on a map. So, as you start diving into the Windows 7 API I’m going to expect some killer Virtual Earth apps, so send them my way. In the meantime, I thought I’d point out at least...
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Keith Kinnan will be on site presenting at Tech Ed this year in Los Angeles, Wednesday, May 13 in a session titled “Deep Dive on Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control (session ID: WUX402).” Ok, so I did a deep dive talk at MIX which you can watch online , BTW. “Well, Chris,” you may ask, “why would I want to go see Keith’s presentation if I already saw yours?” Um, because Keith is the lead developer of the Silverlight Map Control (and the AJAX Map Control). So, he’s kind of important and knows everything there is to know about both controls. Yeaaaah, you might want to talk with him if you’re at Tech Ed and care about online mapping technologies;...
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