Bing Maps Blog

Vampires + Bing Maps + Silverlight = So Hot Right Now

2009-11-14T16:04:00Z

With the impending release of the much anticipated teen vampire romance, Twilight: New Moon, the Bing team has put together The Virtual Twilight Tour, a blood-sucking fun application for you to view an exclusive Twilight video tour brings Forks, La Push, Port Angeles, and Volterra right to your computer so that you can see 16 of Twilight’s and New Moon’s most exciting locations, such as the Cullen house, Fork’s Police Station, Fork’s Hospital, Bella Italia, the dress shop, the book store, and the high school, where you can also take a virtual tour. Just scroll over the Bing Map for location-based navigation and check out the Bing searches in the mix. There’s one part in the Twilight book where Bella looks up the word ‘vampire’ using her “favorite search engine" and then hits the bookstore in Port Angeles. Try it yourself on the virtual tour and see what happens.

The application uses Bing Maps Silverlight control not just for location context, but also because of the native integration with media elements like video and audio. In fact, the Bing Maps Silverlight control interactive SDK has samples on how to overlay scalable (and non-scalable) video feeds right into the control. So, technically, you could do this with you favorite character.

Oh, and I must give full credit to our Bing Maps PR Manager, Melissa Powell for the inspirational title to this post. Unlike a vampire, she doesn’t suck.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Released: Bing Maps UK

2009-11-12T15:53:00Z

If you’re in the UK and go to Bing Maps via Bing.com/maps you will get redirected to Multimap.com…or, at least you would’ve until now. Going to Bing Maps will take you to the new Bing Maps experience in the UK. We’ve introduced a slough a features just for the UK market (and some shared with the US market). Also, for those who still want the Multimap.com experience you can still access it directly via Multimap.com; however, over the next few weeks you will be asked if you’d like try the new Bing Maps experience instead – I’d advise you try it. Once you go Bing, you never go…wait. Never mind. Check out the features.

Redesigned Navigation – An updated navigation bar that matches up with that of Bing Maps US – changing the colors to black and adding a zoom bar instead of just zoom buttons; however, you’ll also notice in the drop down when you hover over the Road (maps link) you’ll see in addition to the Road map options for London Street Map and Ordnance Survey Map, plus thumbnails of each.

Default Search: Location – Since this is Bing MAPS, and based on user feedback we thought it made sense to default search queries to location instead of business. So, put in a location and you’ll be directed accordingly.
Collins Bartholomew Maps – The popular and well know A-to-Z style maps are now available via our friends at Collins Bartholomew. The A-to-Z style maps provide a high level of detail in a very readable format. These are great for getting to know you way around London.

Ordnance Survey Maps – Maps for the outdoorsman (or outdoorswoman)! Our friends at Ordnance Survey provide a broad range over maps including their popular Explorer and Landranger maps for the hiker in you – mountain or urban!

Public Transportation Station Symbology – Symbols representing the different types of public transit are now clearly marked on the map. We no longer have clashing or overlapping symbols – they are just nicely arranged next to each other. You can hover over a station symbol to identify what the station name is. Also, each symbol is clickable to give you information about the station such as name, the lines that cross it and a link to the Transportation for London web site for planning your trip. You can also get directions to/from the station or email a Bing Maps link pointing to the station location to a friend.

Tube Maps – Clicking on one of the stations brings up the Tube Maps for the respective station and the stations it connects to; however, you can turn on all Tube Maps by clicking the respective link in the Welcome Panel.

Nearby Stations – Certain location query types, such as “EC4a 2dy” will result in a pin on the map, as well as a popup providing the closest stations to the respective location and how far away they are. Also including in the results are links to Directions, Saving the pushpin to My Places and Emailing a link to a friend.

What’s Nearby – Also in location results, the Welcome Panel will pop out and provide you with a list of business types that are around the respective area. These will be business categories that reside within the area. Also, notice the link to Explore Wikipedia information right inside of Bing Maps.

Explore User Contributions – If you want to see what other people have contributed (not only to Wikipedia that is now being pulled into Bing Maps), you can explore Collection Items with Photos, 3D Models, MapCruncher Layers and Photosynths (contributed via Photosynth.com). These are available via the Explore option in the Welcome menu.

Walking Directions – This concept is foreign to me since I grew up in LA (and nobody walks in LA, per the Missing Persons), but I can see how Londoners would like walking directions. It’s now available in the Route Planner (and you can use KM too).

London Congestion Charge Warnings – London has a system using cameras to charge you for passing through a sort of toll area. These areas will now be identified within your route instructions on Bing Maps. Don’t want to pay the charge? Use the draggable maps option to drag a route around the area.

Draggable Routes – If you need to change your route you can either enter an additional location in the Route Planner or just grab the route with your mouse cursor and drag it to where you want to go. This will regenerate the route for you.
New Popup Behaviors – Popups are now activated via mouse-click, rather than mouse hover. They also remain raised if you move the mouse away. Close them via the close symbol, clicking on another pushpin, or clicking on the base map.
Embeddable Maps - You can now take a map view right from Bing Maps and embed it into your site. To do this, you’ll want to click the Share button once your map is where you want it to be. You can copy the embed code from there; or, you can click the Customize View link which will take you to the embeddable map customizer (EMC). The EMC allows you to set a map to the map height and width (small, medium, large or custom); the map type (static or draggable); the map styles (road, aerial, aerial w/ labels); and, add links to Bing Maps for Viewing a Larger Map, Getting Directions or seeing Bird’s Eye. Once you’ve set everything the way you want it, click Generate Code and boom! there’s your code. You copy it, then paste it into your web page and you’ll have the map you wanted.

Function Buttons – In addition to changing the navigation atop the maps, we added function buttons at the bottom of the Welcome pane to make it easier to jump to specific features. Each button loads features on Bing Maps. Welcome loads the welcome pane; the car loads the route planner; the star loads My Places, formerly called Collections; the envelop loads the ability to share the map with someone via email, copying a URI or embedding the map into a web page (more on that below); the printer icon is for printing; and, the circle with a line through will load a Tube Map. This is an overlay of the tubes system.

Whoa. I need some water after that workout. Congrats, people of The United Kingdom – you just got yourself one heck of a Bing! map system. If you're not in the UK and want see how good they have it, check out http://www.bing.com/maps/?mkt=en-uk. More to come…also check out the Bing Search Blog for more news about Bing in the UK.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Web Cast: Building Location-based Applications with Bing Maps for NAVTEQ’s LBS Challenge

2009-11-11T18:15:00Z

Planning on entering NAVTEQ’s LBS Challenge? Planning on using Bing Maps? You should probably tune into my session to get the skinny on how the heck you’re going to do that. See my blog post, “Bing Maps Globally Sponsors NAVTEQ’s 2010 LBS Challenge.” Register for my web cast on the NAVTEQ’s Network for Developers Live Meeting site scheduled for next Tuesday, November 17 @ 9AM PST – write that down. I’ll get into the different aspects of how use Bing Maps for web and mobile, talk about some coding opportunities and discuss the possibility of using Silverlight on Windows Mobile.

Building Location-based Applications with Bing Maps
This webinar will provide a deep understanding of the Bing Maps Platform including high level feature descriptions and code level demonstrations for both web and mobile applications. This session will be technical in nature and is meant for a developer audience interested in building applications using Bing Maps for the Navteq LBS Challenge.

I hope you can tune in.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps Imagery Release, November 2009

2009-11-11T12:10:00Z

A bit of an early surprise for my friends who are at Tech Ed Europe 2009 with me. In this special drop of imagery for Bing Maps we focus on, guess where…Europe! And, mostly Eastern Europe. Yesterday, while at Tech Ed Europe, I met with journalists from Norway, UK, Czech Republic, Spain, Croatia, Russia and Austria and most of them asked when we’ll have better imagery / photography in their respective countries. Well, at least I can make a few of them happy. Below, you’ll find the information for this release…all 178,720 square kilometers of it.

And, as always, check out the full details on the Bing Maps World Tour Application.

Bulgaria (1,225 sq. km)
Czech Republic (10,808 sq. km)

Estonia (1,418 sq. km)
Hungary (23,840 sq. km)
Latvia (12,763 sq. km)
Lithuania (9,681 sq. km)
Poland (24,912 sq. km)
Romania (24,435 sq. km)
Russian Federation (15,636 sq. km)

Slovakia (2,018 sq. km)
Slovenia (314 sq. km)
Switzerland (6,227 sq. km)
Turkey (45,443 sq. km)

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps Gets An Overhaul…And, Some New Features

2009-11-10T17:00:00Z

If you visited Bing Maps today you may have noticed a new look and feel. Well, that’s because it has a new look and feel. Specifically, the navigation bar is now black to match the Bing color set. Well, that’s the obvious change; however, I’ll go ahead and provide you with a list of new features you may not notice right off the bat.

Draggable Routes – Yes! This is a great (and much requested) feature added to Bing Maps allowing you to generate a route, then in the case that you need to change the route, you can simply grab any part of it and drag it to where you want the route to actually go. To use draggable routes, click the directions link in the welcome pane or the car icon near the bottom of the welcome pane. Enter a start and end, generate a route, then grab anywhere on the route to move the route line. The route will regenerate for you.
Zoom Bar – No longer just a zoom in and zoom out button, the zoom bar allows you to jump to specific zoom levels within predefined settings.
Command Parsing – Want driving directions? Enter “Bellevue, WA to Space Needle” in the Bing Maps search box. Want traffic info? Enter “Seattle Traffic” in the Bing Maps search box.
Embed a Map – You can now take a map view right from Bing Maps and embed it into your site. To do this, you’ll want to click the Share button once your map is where you want it to be. You can copy the embed code from there; or, you can click the Customize View link which will take you to the embeddable map customizer (EMC). The EMC allows you to set a map to the map height and width (small, medium, large or custom); the map type (static or draggable); the map styles (road, aerial, aerial w/ labels); and, add links to Bing Maps for Viewing a Larger Map or Getting Directions. Once you’ve set everything the way you want it, click Generate Code and boom! there’s your code. You copy it, then paste it into your web page and you’ll have the map you wanted.

Dynamic Compute – We’ve moved the processing power closer to the user. Using Microsoft’s ECN, we now have Bing Maps running in data centers in 7 locations around the world. This means wherever you are around the world, you will access Bing Maps from the closest geographic node to where you are physically located.
New Navigation – We also added a subset of features to a button bar along the bottom of the welcome pane. Each button loads features on Bing Maps. Welcome loads the welcome pane; the car loads the route planner; the star loads My Places, formerly called Collections; the envelop loads the ability to share the map with someone via email, copying a URI or embedding the map into a web page (more on that below); the printer icon is for printing; and, stoplight will load a traffic overlay with flow and incident information.
World Wrap - no longer will your Bing Maps experience stop at the international date line. Keep going around, and around, and around...
Diet Bing Maps - The default Bing Maps home page dropped from 678kb to 484kb. It zips through the pipes much faster now.

Some nice improvements to the already feature-packed consumer site. What could possibly be next?

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps Silverlight Control 1.0 Released

2009-11-10T06:30:00Z

After months of residing online as a community technology preview (CTP), the Bing Maps Silverlight Control (Version 1.0) has arrived and the .dlls are ready for your grubby, coding hands and vividly, creative minds to start bringing to life the next generation of location-based applications. The Bing Maps Silverlight Control adds stunning aesthetic, unmatched performance and an innovative revolution to an already strong arsenal contained under the Bing Maps Platform’s umbrella. Let’s skip the marketing jazz and go straight for the gusto – what’s in the Bing Maps Silverlight Control v. 1? Enter bullet list…

Everything from the CTP was brought forward including support for Deep Zoom, pixel to lat/lon reversal (and vice versa), vector graphics, scalable images and video placement, etc, etc. For more on the CTP check out my blog post, “Introducing The Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control” or watch my session from MIX 2009.

Built on Silverlight 3: We’ve upgraded to the latest bits of Silverlight to keep your application development efforts bleeding edge.
Support for Expression Blend: Add the Bing Maps Silverlight .dlls to your Expression Blend project and modify fields instead of code. Also, your map will appear and modify right before your eyes. The preview also works in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2…at least it does for me.
Bing Maps Keys – bye, bye tokens; hello, AppID (or, Keys, as we’re calling it). Request a Bing Maps Key via the Bing Maps Portal and you can embed a single line of code into your application to be authenticated. This means no more round trips for expiring tokens or additional requests for more tokens.
Out of Browser: Bing Maps Silverlight Control supports Silverlight 3’s popular out of browser feature which allows users to right click an application and save a shortcut on their desktop directly to the Silverlight components of your application.
Map Mode Extensibility: We added some new classes for extending the map types that are available from with the Bing Maps Silverlight control.
Pushpin Class: A native pushpin class for adding vector graphics to the Bing Maps Silverlight Control without using the Silverlight native drawing tools. You can still use the Silverlight tools, but now you don’t have to.
Data Binding (YAY!): Bind your data to a list for easy access and pinning data to the map.
International Support: The Bing Maps Platform has a number of different languages supported across the Bing Maps AJAX Control and Web Service. Now, you can access those localized map tiles via our Silverlight Control.
Bing Maps Web Service Property Type Safety: We synched the classes, methods and properties with those coming from the Bing Maps Web Service. This means that if you use the Bing Map Web Service you don’t have to convert the results to a different class – you just pass them over to the Bing Maps Silverlight Control and they will be natively handled.

Fading Labels: A transparent overlay of road data over aerial maps that will fade away when the mouse isn’t being used.
Scriptable API: For those of you who don’t have (or don’t want to have) the requirements for using the Bing Maps Silverlight Control (Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP 1, Microsoft Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP 1), we’re introducing a JavaScript interface into many of the classes available in the Bing Maps Silverlight Control. This deserves it's own bullet list:
- Microsoft will host a .xap file that you will point your application to via a OBJECT PARAM tag (very much like the Bing Maps AJAX Control). Your code would look something like this:
  - <object id='slCtl' data="data:application/x-silverlight,"type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="800" height="500">
    - <param name="source" value="http://dev.virtualearth.net/silverlight/mapcontrol/v1/Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.xap" />
    - <param name="enableHtmlAccess" value="true" />
    - <param name="initParams" value="ApplicationId=Your Key”/>
  - </object>
- A whole list of scriptable features are available in the Bing Maps Silverlight SDK, but to give you a taste:
  - Set Animation
  - Set Map View (rectangle, center point, map mode)
  - Set Culture (localized maps)
  - Set Visibility of the scale bar
  - Capture user targets (rectangle, center point, zoom level)
  - Location (coordinates)
  - Add Pushpins
  - Capturing Events (mouse, keyboard, Bing Maps)
  - Drawing
Embeddable Maps: A simple URL string for embedding AJAX or Silverlight maps into your applications. Don’t really know how to program? Kind of understand how a URI parameterization works? This might be for you. Take this URI string and place it into an IFRAME SRC tag and you’ll just have a map appear!
- (Silverlight) http://dev.virtualearth.net/embeddedMap/v1/silverlight/aerial?zoomLevel=10&center=47.5_-122.5&pushpins=47.5_-122.5
- (AJAX) http://dev.virtualearth.net/embeddedMap/v1/AJAX/aerial?zoomLevel=10&center=47.5_-122.5&pushpins=47.5_-122.5
- Embeddable maps supports the following features:
  - Map Mode: Set the map mode. mapMode={Road, Aerial, AerialWithLabels, Birdseye, BirdseyeWithLabels}
  - Zoom Level: Set the map zoom level: zoomLevel={1-21}
  - Center: Set the map center point: center={latitude_longitude}
  - Heading: Set the map heading: heading:{North, South, East, West}
  - Pushpins: Places pushpins on the map: pushpins={latitude_longitude}
  - Culture: Set the map localization: culture={en-us}

Holy smokes! This is a lot to digest. Take it all in…. Now, take a breather because we’ve changed the Terms of Use that should put smiles on a lot of faces out there. The changes to the Terms of Use are so big, I’ve decided to write an entire blog entry dedicated just for that, "Bing Maps Terms of Use Changes; Benefit Educators, Not-for-Profits and Developers."

Here are some helpful links:

Bing Maps Silverlight Control Installable (.dlls are inside the .msi package)
Bing Maps Silverlight Interactive SDK
Bing Maps AJAX Interactive SDK
Bing Maps AJAX Control SDK
Bing Maps Silverlight Control SDK
Bing Maps Web Services SDK
Bing Maps Platform Account Management Center

In the mean time, download the .dlls for the Bing Maps Silverlight Map Control. Also, watch the video about what the Bing Maps Silverlight Control means to Microsoft, it’s partners and customers and developers. And, this is only the beginning…

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps Terms of Use Changes; Benefit Educators, Not-for-Profits and Developers

2009-11-10T06:29:00Z

I mentioned in my “Bing Maps Silverlight Control 1.0 Released” blog post that we altered the Bing Maps terms of use and it would require a post all on its own. Well, here’s why. We’ve made a bunch of changes which makes things easier to understand, easier to use and easier to get started.

The way the mapping industry grew up, depended on counting transactions. A transaction is either (a) a geocoding request/response, a routing request response, a search request response or 8 map tiles (256 x 256 pixels). Transactions still have their place for stateless APIs, but we’re moving on by introducing the concept of a session. Sessions will be used with the Bing Maps AJAX Map Control and the Bing Maps Silverlight Control. A session is basically defined as loading the map control and exploring at will – no tile limitations. I’m going to make it as clear and simple as I can, so here goes:

Bing Maps AJAX Control – all maps rendered onto the client upon the initial request is considered 1 session. Session includes any requests for geocoding, routing or search.
Bing Maps Silverlight Control - all maps rendered onto the client upon the initial request is considered 1 session. There are no services built into the Bing Maps Silverlight Control, so you would use the Bing Maps Web Service for geocoding, routing and search, but we’ll include those too.
Bing Maps Web Service – all maps, geocodes, routes and searches will each invoke 1 transaction.

Alright, now that we’ve got the nomenclature down here’s the deal. With the new terms of use for the Bing Maps Platform you get 125,000 sessions per year for FREE. You also get 500.000 transactions a year for FREE. You know what my favorite kind of maps are? Free maps. There are some exclusions (such as traffic and Bird’s Eye), so review the full Terms of Use in case you have questions. Additionally, we set up a nice Marketing page just for licensing so you can see where you fit.

Educators - You now how free unlimited use of the Bing Maps platform for your web sites. Ripping from the actual terms of use, educational use under this Section 2(i) means use by public and private K-12 schools, universities, community colleges and other collegiate level institutions such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, including their faculty, staff, and students. For a list of requirements and restrictions refer to the Terms of Use.

Not-for-Profits - You now how free unlimited use of the Bing Maps platform for your web sites. Ripping from the actual terms of use, to be considered non-profit organization use under this Section 2(i) you must be a tax exempt organization. For a list of requirements and restrictions refer to the Terms of Use.

Commercial, non-commercial and government – If you’re building internal or fleet apps or something big, you’ll need a license. We want commercial, non-commercial and government customers to build, experiment and innovate atop the Bing Maps platform without worrying about a license until your application is ready to be deployed across your enterprise or onto the web. So, build proof of concepts at will and work with us when you’re ready to go primetime. For more information check out the terms of use or go to Jerry Skaw’s Bing Maps for Government blog.

If you still have questions or don’t see where you fit into a category, visit our new licensing page.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

The Scottish Government Goes with Bing Maps Silverlight

2009-11-09T21:33:00Z

The Scottish Government launched their Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) site which identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a fair way and allows effective targeting of policies and funding where the aim is to wholly or partly tackle or take account of area concentrations of multiple deprivation is now using a Bing Maps Silverlight interface to visualize their data. The SIMD Interactive Bing Map is a mapping tool which can be used to identify Scotland's most deprived areas and their location within each local authority area.

Now, this is a perfect example of an application that would require a Bing Maps Silverlight interface. There is just a massive amount of data to visualize and it’s done in a compact, yet elegant manner using simple lists and checkboxes. Within the application, the default interface loads all of the geographies as semi-transparent overlays. You can then click anywhere on the map which will select the respective region, zoom to it, shade it as a vector graphic, then query the polygon and return information about the respective polygon to a table below the map with additional information such as the immediate geography, local authority, SIMD Rank, Domain Rank and Datazone information.

Check out the lists and checkbox data – lots of information to further drill down on the deprivation issues around Scotland that filter the information presenting on the map:

SIMD Year: 2004, 2006, 2009
Domain: SIMD Rank, Income, Employment, Health, Education, Geographic Access, Housing, Crime
Classification: Most Deprived (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%), Most Deprived (15%), Quintiles, Deciles, Vigintiles
Color Scheme: Red to Blue, Greyscale
Geographies: Intermediate Geographies, Scottish Parliamentary Constituencies, Local Authorities, Health Boards
You can also adjust the map overlay opacity for a lighter experience to see the underlying Bing Maps more clearly.

For more information on the Bing Maps Silverlight Control, check out my MIX 2009 session about the CTP, MIX 2009 Wrap Up and Virtual Earth Session Replay.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

YellowPages.com’s Mobile Efforts with Bing Maps

2009-11-05T18:55:00Z

For the past years, I’ve worked closely with Yellow Pages (owned by AT&T Interactive) getting Bing Maps onto their Yellow Pages.com web site; however, they’ve also been working on some mobile applications that use Bing Maps. You can see the applications from your mobile browser at http://m.yp.com. I was able to commandeer a video from them that illustrates all of the offerings from the mobile side of the house. Sorry, it’s a You Tube video. :-/

The Yellow Pages mobile site includes several features from Bing Maps – road maps, layering pushpins on the maps, aerial photos, traffic information and driving directions. Now, I just traded in my T-Mobile Dash for something else, but I will tell you that a site like this was critical to my WAP browsing experience. For those of you who rely on WAP, you will thank the AT&T Interactive for this. Super light weight, super simplistic - exactly what you'd be looking for when you're using a WAP site for browsing for locations near you in real time.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps Globally Sponsors NAVTEQ’s 2010 LBS Challenge

2009-11-04T21:50:00Z

Up for a challenge? Got a killer idea for the next great mobile or web, location-based application? Wanna win some killer prizes to propel your application into the spotlight? For the first time, Microsoft’s Bing Maps is sponsoring the developer-focused NAVTEQ LBS Challenge a location-based contest for developers to strut their stuff and vie for the opportunity to go big on their ideas with funding from some of the biggest names in the industry. Take your application to primetime and become the next LiveCast, Skyhook Wireless or Navman – all previous winners of the LBS Challenge.

What is the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge? Scraping from their web site, the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge focused on driving the development and visibility of innovative location-based solutions (LBS) for wireless devices. The Global LBS Challenge has become the premier event in the wireless industry and a global symbol of LBS innovation and opportunity. From business applications to sports, travel and security, integrating the accuracy and richness of NAVTEQ digital map data facilitates the discovery of the next wave of LBS using dynamic positioning technology.

And, yours truly will be making a cameo as one of the judges in the final rounds of application development. That means if you’re there we can chat it up at the events around the world. Here’s the schedule of dates where I’ll be on site to review your application and potentially make you famous!

EMEA - February 14, 2010 – Barcelona, Spain – Mobile World Congress

North America – March 30, 2010 – San Jose, USA – Where 2.0

India – April 29, 2010 – New Delhi, India

South America – May 25, 2010 – Sao Paolo, Brazil – Geo Summit

Asia – June 14, 2010 – Singapore - CommunicAsia

Registration closes for EMEA on November 6, 2009 (so, hurry up!). Registration for North America closes November 20, 2009, so more time, but not much. Register!

For more information about Bing’s involvement with the LBS Challenge, check out our landing page.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps on the New MSN Homepage

2009-11-04T19:54:00Z

MSN is getting an overhaul. We just launched a new version of the portal site and I must say it looks much cleaner. See for yourself: http://preview.msn.com/. And, if you’re looking for Bing Maps, you’ll have to either search for something location related in the Bing Search box or go to the “More” tab. I guess we’re just a bit of a red-headed step-child for now…no offense to red-headed step-children.

For full details on all of the features, check out the MSN Blog.

CP - Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Bing Maps Imagery Release, October 2009

2009-11-03T17:23:00Z

We just shipped another 9,460 square kilometers of imagery onto Bing Maps. This month’s release showcases high precision imagery for the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. The biggest drop by far was Greater Vancouver Metro…I wonder why. Hmm? Anyone up for a little curling in Canada? O Canada! In any case, it’s all 15-30 centimeter resolution imagery, so it’s pretty stunning. We also released a refresh of the mobile tile set for vector (road) maps....more on that in another post.

You can check out the full details of the release on the Bing Maps World Tour application which allows you to sit back and let the application give you a guided tour of the new imagery; or, you can navigate yourself to see the new imager, including previous releases.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

The Weather Network Broadcasts with Bing Maps

2009-11-03T02:36:00Z

Now, I’ve seen some cool newscasts with Bing Maps (formerly Virtual Earth), but I’ve got some new eye candy to help boost your weatherman’s ratings. The Weather Network in Canada has integrated Bing Maps into their weathercasts and it is, simply put – sick. Watch this weather broadcast video (in Silverlight) and check out the Virtual Earth / Bing Maps 3D integration with animated weather right in the 3D control and temperatures layered over the map itself (click map to view video).

I love the animated rain and lighting. We should do that! Hmm. Well, did you know you could build robust eye candy with the Bing Maps 3D Managed Control without using the AJAX APIs? Oh yeah, who needs JavaScript when you’ve got .NET? You can gain access to the documentation for programming with the Bing Maps 3D Managed Control from the 3D Team’s Blog.

Anyway, I may go to Canada just to watch this. Perhaps for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Oh! I could head up to Whistler and stay at a resort cozying up with someone special, watching skiers and snowboarders fly by while I sip hot espresso on the snow-littered patio. Oh, Whistler, how I do adore thee.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

MapPoint Presence at 2009 SQL Server Pass Summit

2009-11-02T20:23:00Z

The MapPoint Team will be available for you bending their ears at the SQL Server Pass Summit this year in Seattle, WA from November 2-5. If you’re a SQL Server expert and want to extend your use of the spatial indexing capabilities by adding visualization outside of the Dundas maps provided with Visual Studio, you may want to stop by the MapPoint kiosk at this show and talk with the experts who provide geospatial data visualization in MapPoint 2010. Specifically, you should read my blog entry “SQL Server and MapPoint 2009, Together At Last.”

At this conference, the MapPoint team will have (1) a kiosk in the Microsoft booth, (2) Eric Weitzman (creator of the SQL Server Add-in) at the booth, (3) a live demo in the Microsoft spotlight theater, (4) and sponsoring latte carts both days. So, hey, at the very least you get a free latte and learn a little something about SQL Server spatial data visualization.

If you’re there, it would definitely be worth making time for a fly by the kiosk.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Weather.com Adds “Futures” on Bing Maps

2009-11-02T04:06:00Z

Weather.com added Bing Maps as its default mapping platform back when it was Microsoft Virtual Earth (and back when I was writing the Virtual Earth and MapPoint B2B blog!); however, they’ve continued to innovate and just recently added the ability to view “Futures” on the map. Futures are essentially a predictive model overlain and animated over the top of the Bing Map embedded into the web site. I added a screen shot; however, for best viewing you’ll want to go to the Weather.com web site and check it out.

The way this is done, since they are using a Flash interface, is to create a transparent tile overlay with the predictive weather data models drawn as ~20 different overlays. They’ll load the overlays as individual layers, then turn one off and turn the next one on – very much how animating a cartoon is done. So, layer one has a picture of the predictive weather model over a specific region; layer two has it a few miles from that as time would move the storms. So, they’ll turn off layer 1, then turn on layer 2, etc. They’ll do this for all of the respective zoom layers in Bing Maps so you can see the data at many levels of fidelity.

I also noticed they have past data in the case that you wanted to see historical weather data which effectively does the same thing; but the time stamp is different. Additionally, I noticed a potential money maker for Weather.com. They’ve placed a radio button atop their maps for Hampton Inns. If you click the radio button, all the Hampton Inn hotels will appear on the map. I’m not totally sure that they’re making money off of that, but there is a click through to a reservation system, so perhaps they get some sort of booking fee if you book a hotel via Weather.com.

Nice idea – see where the weather is what you want it to be and book a hotel via Hampton Inn (Hilton). People are always asking me how to at least cover their costs on mapping (or even make money); it’s partnerships like this that will help drive revenue back into the cost center. They don’t necessarily scale well in terms of setting up relationships with different partners, etc, so maybe we’ll work on something to fix that. I’m just saying…it would be cool.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton