Virtual Earth

Another big data update over at Virtual Earth, over 20 TB, including Microsoft UltraCam images of Iowa City in drier times: (a more recent picture from the Des Moines Register, below)… …and other non-Ultra-cam imagery of lots of areas of France, some parts of Scotland and Wales, and Beijing, among others: Also just introduced is a new program, GoVE: We're just starting a new pro

DeepEarth is an open source community project that combines the interactive experience in Silverlight 2 Deep Zoom with photo tiles from Virtual Earth. The end result is a mapping mashup that beautifully zooms in and out. Try it yourself or watch the demo on YouTube. Source: Alert C9'er Jamie Thomson

Learn how to incorporate Microsoft Virtual Earth's mapping and aerial photography data from around the world, in both 2- and 3-dimensional environments, into your own applications. Speakers: Chris PendletonRead more about this video…Want to control this feed contents? Sign up here and create your own feed!Want more on these topics?Browse the archive of posts filed under Conferences, Technol

Are you kidding me? 69.2 Terabytes?? I was once asked at a show how Microsoft handles so much data when transferring it over the Internet to the data centers. New 3D models (Version 2 of the processing software). In addition to Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix we've added Vienna, Seattle and Miami. Full Listing and Images at source Source: blogs.msdn.com

Chris Pendleton, Virtual Earth Technical Evangelist at Microsoft reports, that  May 2008 Virtual Earth update is focused on delivering new imagery to the platform, and revealed that new 3D models along with fresh Ortho and Oblique (Bird’s Eye) imagery account for the 69.2 TB of the update to its integrated  mapping, imaging, search, and data visualization platfo

We talked about it at ReMIX Australia, Angus Logan got grilled over when it will be put into the hands of developers and now the release is set, the Virtual Earth ASP.NET control will be shipped in the Windows Live Tools July CTP. This is great news for ASP.NET developers. A proper ASP.NET toolbox control with support from Microsoft will allow simply integration into your projects and personall

About two months after the first four “version 2″ cities were released, Microsoft has just unveiled Miami 2.0.  Like the other four cities, it features a massive increase in the number of buildings, along with a whole bunch of 3D trees.  According to the Virtual Earth 3D blog, Miami now has 46,344 3D buildings (up [...]

The Redmond company is constantly working to add superior 3D models of locations around the world to Virtual Earth, both in terms of sophistication and volume. At this point in time, Virtual Earth offers users no less than 250 complete cities “built” through an automated photogrammetric processing system. UltraCamX is a 216 mega-pixel large format [...]

Last week at Remix Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, Windows Live Team announced, Microsoft’s upcoming Virtual Earth control for Visual Studio 2008. Angus Logan, Senior Technical Product Manager from the Windows Live Platform team, presented an hour session on Windows Live. […]the ability to simply drag and drop the latest Virtual Earth map control onto your aspx page,

I was very proud to announce and show for the first time in public Microsoft's upcoming Virtual Earth control for Visual Studio 2008 as part of the Windows Live session at Australia's remix event. Remix Australia was held last week in Sydney and Melbourne and brought together 700 web developers and designers to talk about what is new with Microsoft and the web. Angus Logan, Senior Technical Produc

For a recent project I was working on, I needed to overlay lines of latitude and longitude on the map. I had a hard time finding some so I created 10 degree and 30 degree grids. Below you can view each of them as a Collection which you can export to KML, GeoRSS or GPX and you can also grab the exported KML for each. I figured someone else must have use for this as well. If you grab the KML files you can easily edit the styles (1 for latitude, 1 for longitude) or make whatever tweaks you need. 10 Degree Lines: Collection or KML 30 Degree Lines: Collection or KML Source: !2BBC66E99FDCDB98!15991.entry

Today Microsoft launched their Oblique images called Bird's Eye for Australia and Canada. This was part of a 22 TB update for April, full details can be found here. There are some amazing images to be seen. Four major centres have been added for Australia: the Sydney CBD, Hobart, the Gold Coast and Wollongong. For Canada six cities now appear: Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Victoria, Edmonton and Vancouver. I recommend changing over to 3D mode for easy navigation between images. It all can be found at

We mentioned it yesterday, but now we have details of the imagery update in Virtual Earth, thanks VE: An Evangelist’s Blog. I had hoped to see more of their awesome “version 2.0″ 3D cities added, but no new ones were added this time.  Still, it’s a very impressive update! Here’s part of the list: Microsoft Ultracam Orthos Pueblo, CO Wilmington, [...]

Microsoft has apparently just added 22TB worth of new imagery to Virtual Earth. The only nice tidbit we know so far is that Australia finally has some Birds Eye imagery. Assuming this is accurate, I expect a detailed announcement from Microsoft shortly.

What do you get when you combine Disney World, Twitter, Flickr, and Microsoft's Virtual Earth? You get the awesome site Twisney.com! The site lets you send in email, IMs, text messages, or tweets in order to update the Virtual Earth map with your photos and news.

Coachella and the New Orleans Jazz Fest kick off the summer frenzy of music festivals this weekend. The Virtual Earth Team has created a map that will eventually contain nearly a hundred festivals around the world! Spin’s May issue runs down nearly a hundred festivals around the world featuring a dozen major events and hundreds of [...]

Denver has emerged as one of the flagship cities for both Google Earth and Virtual Earth. Google Earth has built a ton of 3D models in the city, and Virtual Earth has already converted it to “version 2.0″ with over 100,000 3D models (as well as 300,000 trees). Therefore, I thought it’d be [...]

Microsoft ha trabajado duro en Virtual Earth 3D y han lanzado una gran actualización que tiene nuevas características que pueden llegar a asombrar, que ahora si se puede comparar en parte con el servicio de Google Earth. Se han mejorado considerablemente las texturas de los edificios 3D en la que incluso en las calles se han [...]

Microsoft ha rilasciato un major update per il servizio web-based Windows Live Maps e per l’applicazione desktop Virtual Earth. Questa una breve lista di tutte le nuove features: Migliorata la visualizzazione 3D delle città con una migliore textures, rendering, e con l’aggiunta di nuovi edifici. Anche se questa miglioria è disponibile attualmente solamente per alcune città, [...]

To go with the new ClearFlow traffic, Microsoft has just released a slew of new features for Virtual Earth.  They include: Export collections to GPS using KML, GPX and GeoRSS. Improved 3D cities.  Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix are now in “version 2″, which includes higher-res textures, more buildings and even rendered tress.  Other cities will [...]

Virtual Earth Site for Business Decision Makers A few months ago the new Virtual Earth marketing site www.microsoft.com/virtualearth launched. This site is a great place for a business decision maker to read up on Virtual Earth. You will find News, Events, Case Studies and Product Sheets. The News page is new and contains some of the latest development announcements and features blog posts from people in the Virtual Earth Product Group such as Chris Pendleton, Steve Lombardi and Jerry Skaw. The Events page is the page where all Virtual Earth Events (Webcasts, Conferences) will be posted so you can learn more about how Virtual Earth can help your organization. You will also find a rotating "Featured Site" there, which showcases some unique implementations using Virtual Earth.

On April 10, Microsoft plans to release Virtual Earth version 6.1.  Among the enhancements: Enhanced experiences with bird’s eye view in 3D, and new bird’s eye hybrid view. Reverse geocoding for U.S. users. Walking directions for North America and European Union users. Traffic-based driving directions. New cross-browser support. Improved printing support for maps. That’s quite a bit of good stuff.  While I’ve [...]

As always, it’s a huge update.  This one totals over 42 TB! There was no new 3D data added, but a lot of ortho and a TON of new Bird’s Eye imagery.  Here is the full list, or you can just go view it right now. Orthos USA Las Vegas, NV Denver, CO Phoenix DT, AZ San Luis Obispo, CA Austria/Switzerland Orthos: Vienna, Austria Bern, [...]

O Virtual Earth, produzido pela Microsoft, apresenta-se como o grande rival do Google Earth. Com ele é possível navegar através das cidades por todo o mundo, tendo acesso a imagens de satélite.No entanto, a grande diferença e vantagem é a Bird View, que permite ver os prédios de fachada e com uma boa qualidade, ao passo que o Google Earth só nos deixa ver as ruas de cima. Este tipo de visão dá uma outra dinâmica ao programa e é certamente uma mais-valia para a Microsoft.Algumas cidades portuguesas já estão disponíveis com a Bird View, nomeadamente Porto, Lisboa e Setúbal, Braga, Guimarães, Leiria, Faro. Quanto a Madeira só nos resta esperar.Este software foi mencionado numa notícia da Sic, disponivel aqui.Site Oficial: AquiDonwload: Aqui

Hiện tại Google Maps và Microsoft Virtual Earth là 2 "đại gia" về cung cấp các dịch vụ công cộng trên internet liên quan đến dữ liệu không gian và dữ liệu ảnh vệ tinh, đặc biệt là hiển thị dữ liệu. Tuy nhiên mỗi "đại gia" lại có một thế mạnh riêng vì kho dữ liệu của họ khá khác nhau về chất và về lượng. Là người sử dụng, rất nhiều lúc chúng ta có nhu cầu xem dữ liệu của Google Maps và Microsoft

Not quite as big as their last few updates, but this one still has quite a bit. The list includes:  New/Updated Birds Eye Cities in the US Etowah Co, AL Mobile Co, AL Monterey Co, CA Boulder Co Broomfield Co WashingtonDC. Cobb Co, GA De Kalb Co, GA Muscogee Co, GA Macon Co, IL Will Co, IL Rowan Co, KY Fayette Co, KY Anne Arundel Co, MD Grand Rapids Metro, MI Detroit Metro [...]

Microsoft has just announced that they have added Caligari, makers of the 3D modeling software trueSpace, to their to their Virtual Earth team. Plans for implementing Caligari into Virtual Earth have not been revealed, but it certainly has a lot of potential.  One item that I’ve seen mentioned a few times already is the possiblity of [...]

Microsoft has just announced that two big customers have migrated over to Virtual Earth.   From their site: Yellowbook, The largest independent yellow pages publisher, has migrated their application from Mapquest to Virtual Earth in order to take advantage of VE’s advanced rooftop geocoding and maps. Windermere released Property Point 3 and in so doing migrated from a [...]

New and updated imagery, Bird’s Eye Coverages for Virtual Earth: - 44 new hi-res orthos (aerials) from 3Di using the UltraCam - 36 new US areas of Pictometry Bird’s Eye oblique scenes - 26 new EU areas of BLOM Bird's Eye scenes - 5 areas of US orthos from GlobeXplorer - 17 areas of orthos around the world from GeoEye - Updated orthos in England, Wales and Scotland from Getmapping - Holland orthos from DKLN Details can be found here: VEIPP Drops 36 Terabytes before the Holiday Break. If that isn’t enough.. they also added 60 new textured cities to Virtual Earth: 6000 Square miles of 3D cities added to VE. Fargo, Liverpool, Kansas City and many more… Related: - Live Maps

Featured Site: http://www.mgmaps.com/Mobile Maps: Today I would feature one of my favorite sites here, I love this FREE application for the Mobile Phones, I am using this Mobile Maps / Location on my Nokia 3230, it works wonder for me!Just enter this above featured web page, read it, understand it, its very easy and fun, make a small download to your cell phone and you are on the Yahoo Maps and the world of Mapping and geography on the cell phones, literally now whole of the world will be in your pockets. One could track his / her accurate positioning, geographical location, Longitude, Latitude on the Globe / Map for free, mapping is in Hybrid, Map and Satellite Modes. This Mobile GMaps application is distributed under the Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs Creative Commons license, means you may download, use and distribute the application free of charge only for personal, non-commercial purposes.I would be happy if my Talkfree7 esteemed readers would like to start writing some co

It’s been more than a month since their last update, but Microsoft has just put out an insane update that measures more than 33TB! They’ve updated: 3Di/Boulder hi-res Orthos/Aerial Imagery in various places in North America (and in Saitama, Japan) Obliques/Bird’s Eye for 36 locations in the US and 49 locations in Europe. GloveXplorer Orthos for 13 locations in the US. GeoEye Orthos for three locations in Mexico,  nine locations in Central/South America, five locations in Europe, five locations in the Middle East, 19 locations in Australia, four locations in Asia, five locations in Africa and 34 “world-wide tropical destinations”. The state of Nevada had a statewide imagery update. Getmapping UK Orthos in Scotland and England/Wales You can see the detailed list in their blog, or just go explore it yourself.

Virtual Earth 3D brings you another step closer to knowing "what it is like out there". You can search, browse, and organize local information viewed in three dimensions, just the way it exists in the real world. This enables you to more effectively find the data that is relevant to you, making Live Maps more useful than ever. Even better -- it's just plain fun!System requirementsPocket PC 2003 / 2003 SE / 5.0Download Virtual Earth Mobile 1.69

Dopo il servizio offerto da Google con Sketchup, anche Microsoft in collaborabione con la francese Dassault presenta un servizio simile: 3DVIA, un software per creare modelli tridimensionali da inserire in Virtual Earth.

Endlich wurde der MapControl bei Virtual Earth überarbeitet (siehe das Bild). Keith Kinnan ist der Entwickler des Controls und er hat in seinem Posting [1] ausführlich die Neuerungen beschrieben. Sehr gut finde ich den verstärkten Fokus auf die Performanz - solche Anwendungen müssen in Punkto Geschwindigkeit den Desktop-Anwendungen im nichts nachstehen. Mit dem MapChruncher können eigene Layers in Virtual Earth eingebracht und so zusätzliche Informationen angezeigt werden. Wirklich nützlich bspw. bei großen Einkaufszentren. Sehr interessant ist auch die Betrachtung [2] über die Ergebnisse des Web 2.0 Summits und die Strategien beider Marktführer. Laut InformationWeek setzt Microsoft auf 3D und Social Mapping. Nun, mal sehen wann etwas davon auch in Europa zu sehen ist. ;-) [1] http://blogs.msdn.com/keithkin/archive/2007/10/17/virtual-earth-v6-api-now-available.aspx [2] http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202404930

E' stato rilasciato in beta MapCruncher che permette di unire le mappe di Virtual Earth con le proprie mappe creando dei Mapping Mashup.Accetta una serie di formati vettoriali: PDF, WMF, EMF e formati rasterizzati come: JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP.

New Birds Eye Cities Coverages Virtual Earth / Live Maps. US: - Worcester, MD, Orange, CT. (plus more CT), Warren, NJ, Hunterdon, NJ, Cape May, NJ, Jackson, MS, Tulsa, OK, Reno, NV, Marion, OR, Fulton, NY, Northampton, PA, Albany Metro, NY, Henrico, VA, Yonkers Metro, NY, Fresno, CA, Harford, MD, Larimer, CO, Erie, NY UK: - Aldershot, Newbury, Ayre, Warwick/Leamington, Telford, Mansfield, Blackburn / Darwen, Basingstoke / Basing, Burnley / Nelson, Cannock / Great Wyrley, Craigavon, Nuneaton, Redditch / Astwood, Abergele / Rhyl / Prestatyn, Weymouth Spain: - Madrid Denmark: - Copenhagen Sweden: - Stockholm Related Links: - Live Maps - Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Madrid now in Birds Eye View

Microsoft has just released a new version of Live Search Maps (named Gemini), as well as revealed a few more places that were updated in the past few days. The new version has a lot of cool stuff: 1-Click Directions - Also known as “party maps”, this is a single permalink that you can send out, and each person can get directions to it from their house with a single click. Route Around Traffic - It’s a check box option to have it automatically route around traffic jams, based on the live traffic data. Data Import - Import GeoRSS, GPX and even some KML. Birds Eye View in 3D - A way to view Birds Eye imagery while in 3D mode.  It’s kinda weird, but very cool. 3D Tours and Videos of Collections - You can build a “tour” (fly around, look at stuff, etc), then share it with others by sending them a simple URL.  They can control the tour using DVD-style controls. 3D Modelling - Using Dassault, you can create 3D buildings in VE. Collection Search and Explo

Microsoft continues their rapid, massive updates to Virtual Earth. This one totals 10TB (28TB worth of refreshed street map tiles) and it includes a ton of new Birds Eye View imagery. The full list of areas updated: UK Aldershot Newbury Ayre Warwick/Leamington Telford Mansfield Blackburn/Darwen Basingstoke/Basing Burnley/Nelson Cannock/Great Wyrley Craigavon Nuneaton Redditch/Astwood Abergele/Rhyl/Prestatyn Weymouth US Worcester, MD Orange, CT. (plus more CT) Warren, NJ Hunterdon, NJ Cape May, NJ Jackson, MS Tulsa, OK Reno, NV Marion, OR Fulton, NY Northampton, PA Albany Metro, NY Henrico, VA Yonkers Metro, NY Fresno, CA Harford, MD Larimer, CO Erie, NY I continue to be impressed by the speed and depth of Microsoft’s VE updates lately.

New 3D cities included in Virtual Earth. Others received a facelift. US Cities included: - Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe, Mesa, Avondale, Gilbert, Peoria, Glendale, Augusta, Denver, Nashville, Chicago, Fort Worth and Coral Springs. Canada: - Edmonton Related Links: - New 3D cities in Virtual Earth - Live Maps

Yesterday, Microsoft added 3D data to a bunch of cities.  They include: Arizona Phoenix Tucson Tempe Mesa Avondale Gilbert Peoria Glendate Augusta, GA Denver, CO Nashville, TN Chicago, IL Fort Worth, TX Coral Springs, FL Edmonton (Canada) Chicago, in particular, is quite impressive.  Enlarge the screenshot at the top, check out a great video of it, or go see it for yourself!

The Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S.  has a large number of geospacial apps for things such as oil spills, beach water quality, etc. Today they announced that they’ll be using Virtual Earth as the platform for these applications.  The reasons for choosing Virtual Earth over Google Earth weren’t clear, but two things stuck out:  ”Virtual Earth is the only existing platform that offers developers and end users the ability to work with and view satellite, aerial, oblique and 3-D imagery of the Earth.” – Is the Bird’s Eye view that important for something like this? “Before we selected Microsoft’s Web-based Virtual Earth, the EPA relied on more expensive and cumbersome desktop applications” — That almost sounds like a shot at Google Earth, but I don’t think it is. I’m still not sure why they chose VE over GE, but it seems that for this type of application either platform would do the job.  It might just be

Si hace algunos meses desde Google Earth apareció lo que era un secreto militar en submarinos balísticos de China, la semana pasada Dan Twohig, un blogger de Seattle, dándose una vuelta por Virtual Earth se encontró lo que es un secreto militar del ejercito de los EEUU desde hace décadas. Encontró un submarino nuclear en dique seco en Bangor Sub Base, en la que muestra claramente el diseño de las hélices de estos submarinos diseñado especialmente para no generar ruido y no ser detectados en inmersión… al parecer hay un revuelo por esta foto publicada en los EEUU, ya que se considera secreto de seguridad nacional… Ya nos imaginamos a los militares de otros países tomando buena nota de este diseño de hélice… incluida China. Compártelo

As per the Virtual Earth for Government blog, a lot of new bird’s eye imagery and a few new 3D city models have been released.  The 3D cities are Montreal, Canada and Toulouse, France.  The new Bird’s Eye imagery is in hundreds of cities; the full list can be found here.

Attraverso la funzione GetRoute Virtual Earth disegna sulla mappa un percorso data una location di partenza e una di arrivo.Le due location possono essere indicate sia come stringa quindi un indirizzo, oppure attraverso l'oggetto VELatLong.Ho pensato quindi di usare la funzione GetRoute per risalire all'indirizzo di una via conoscendo solo le coordinate di latitudine e longitudine.Per prima cosa mi son costruito una semplice interfaccia web in cui ho inserito i seguenti controlli:1)un controllo TextBox con id txtLatitudine in cui vado ad indicare le coordinate di latitudine;2)un controllo TextBox con id txtLongitudine in cui vado ad indicare le coordinate di longitudine;3)un Input Button con id btnSearch che richiama la funzione di ricerca della route;4)un controllo Label con id lblResult che prenderà come risultato l'indirizzo della strada trovata.Il codice dell'interfaccia è il seguente: <body onload="GetMap();"> <fo

Per caricare la mappa di default di Virtual Earth nella nostra pagina .aspx bastano pochissime righe di codice: <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" ><head runat="server"> <title>Pagina di test Virtual Earth</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <script src="http://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/mapcontrol.ashx?v=5"></script> <script> var map = null; function GetMap() { map = new VEMap( 'myMapDefault'); map.LoadMap(); } </script></head><body onload="GetMap();"> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div id="myMapDefault" style="position:absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%"> </div> </form></body></html>La mappa di default centrata sugli Stati Uniti viene caricata nel n

Microsoft Corp. anuncia hoy, en colaboración con Intermap Technologies Corp., el lanzamiento de la plataforma Virtual Earth 3D, un sistema de mapas tridimensionales con elevaciones que proporcionará los usuarios de Internet mejores mapas para el Reino Unido. Intermap y Microsoft coninuan trabajando para terminar similares mapas tridimensionales para Europa Occidental y los EE UU. Estos mapas son la base para la alineación de fotografías aéreas, que en capas 3D crean imágenes sin distorsión y mejor exactitud. Todos estos mapas se añadirán a Live Search Maps, esperando que pueda ayudar al usuario a encontrar posiciones con mejor exactitud teniendo en cuenta un ambiente en torno más parecido a la experiencia real.Intermap espera terminar los mapas de Europa a finales de este año y los EEUU a finales del 2008. Compártelo

Endlich wurden auch die Luftbilder (Aerial Images) im Virtual Earth Angebot für Deutschland verbessert. Bisher war hier nur eine verschwommene grobe Sicht zu sehen. Noch fehlen die letzten beiden Stufen, aber hoffentlich nicht mehr lang. Zur Not ist die Vogelperspektive (Bird's Eye View) auch noch vorhanden. Unten ein Vergleich mit Axinom HQ in Fürth. [1] http://maps.live.com Aerial Images Bird's Eye View Images

Many moons ago I tried out Windows Live Local (now called Virtual Earth I think) and decided it didn't meet my needs since it didn't show any London tube stations or train stations which made getting round London kind of difficult. I checked it out again today and it now has got tube and train stations. This is actually a step ahead of Google Maps that only show tube stations. However it seems to be a bit buggy currently since sometimes stations appear at one zoom level, disappear when you zoom in, then re-appear again after more zooming, which I presume is not by design. Check out Herne Hill. So finally these Web 2.0 sites have almost caught up with Streetmap, which I don't think has been updated in about 5 years. Kind of shows up the 'we move in a fast moving industry' mantra as a complete lie.  

Unter vielen Ankündigungen versteckte sich auch der neueste Release von Virtual Earth - die Version 5.0: The Virtual Earth platform is an integrated set of services that combines unique bird’s eye, aerial, and 3D imagery with best-of-breed mapping, location and search functionality. With ongoing investments in innovation that are driven by customer feedback, the Virtual Earth platform 5.0 continues to offer new tools, advanced feature enhancements, and robust platform capabilities. (etc. etc.) Neben der üblichen Featurepflege (Map Control Code ist nur noch 120 KB groß, bisher 500 KB... nett!) unterstützt VE ab sofort (wie bereits im Blog erwähnt) die GeoRSS-Schnittstelle, die neue MiniMap ermöglicht einfachere Navigation und das sog. Over-Fetching (programatisch die Karten im Hintergrund nachladen = sichtbare Performanzverbesserung) ist nun auch drin. Die Beschreibung der SDK ist unter [2] auf MSDN zu finden. Was hat sich grundlegend geändert? Die kommerzi

The Windows Live Maps Team have recently announced new and improved aerial /Birds Eye imagery footage in many areas around the globe as well as seven new and updated 3D cities. Here is a list of the cities with new or enhanced coverage. Italy - Aerial and Birds eye coverage was already very good here. 73 new cities now have 15cm resolution aerial coverage US Aerial - States of Indiana and Hawaii, Malibu, Joiliet, Miramar, San Francisco, Aurora, La Jolla, Naperville, Niagara Falls, Beaverton, La Mesa, Brooklyn, Portland, Indianapolis, Newark, Roseville, Columbus, Dallas Ft. Worth, Imperial, Juneau, Fairbanks US Birds Eye Counties - Cleveland County OK, Chittenden County VT, Canadian County OK, Bernalillo County NM, Oklahoma County OK, Suffolk County NY, Chesapeake County VA, Franklin County NY, Wood County OH, Riverside County CA, Minneapolis Metro MN, Yates County NY, Douglas County CO, Hamilton County IN France Aerial - Bordeaux, Montpellier, Toulouse, Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo Ca

A major imagery release just went online at Live Maps and the Virtual Earth platform - 3.8 terabytes worth of imagery to be exact. The 3.8TB update features dozens more cities of Birds eye coverage as well as some high resolution ortho imagery from the Ultracam and GlobeXplorer. And lots of European Birds eye coverage, including some countries that had not been previously covered at all. Here’s a list of all of the new coverage by region: New cities with Birds Eye Coverage around the world: United Kingdom Bedford, Chesterfield, Hull, Ipswich, Lowestoft, Morecambe, Carlisle, Tamworth, Aylesbury, Exeter, Kettinger, Newport, Pontypool, Stafford, Rugby, Taunton, Torbay Germany Bremerhaven, Celle, Delmenhorst, Esslingen, Ibbenbuerren, Oldenburg, Osnabrueck, Rheine, Wilhelmshaven, Aachen, Bremen, Flensburg, Fulda, Hamln, Herford, Minden, Muenster, Wetzlar, Ahlen, Arnsberg, Emden, Lippstadt, Wesel, Kassel, Neustadt Italy Naples, BOLZANO, CAGLIARI, Trieste, MESSINA United States Chicago

Microsoft Corp. announced that it will begin to update the Virtual Earth™ online mapping platform with new, more detailed U.S. imagery under an agreement with GlobeXplorer LLC, a leading... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Microsoft’s Stephen Lawler gives a brief tour of Google Earth’s future competitor, Virtual Earth.  A short rendezvous through its hyperreal 3D cityscapes reveals a staggering amount of detail into focus. Even at the beta-stage, Virtual Earth shows incredible potential.   Images look crisp and navigation seems pretty accurate. Microsoft’s visions for the product... If you want to read more, just click the title