Clear, crisp aerial imagery photographed by low-flying aircraft supplements traditional satellite images, unlocking the location component in data. Employees and citizens alike benefit from a location-specific view of assets and other data that they can tailor to the desired level of detail for broad or specific analysis.

3-D models and terrain created by automated engineering systems increase situational awareness by allowing users to maneuver through locations and to visualize buildings and custom data sets from any perspective or vantage point.

Road maps and map data allow users to quickly locate people, businesses, addresses, and points of interest and provides point-to-point routing with live traffic updates.

Proximity searches supply a list of points of interest based on the
proximity to a selected location and offers additional ways to search for other points of interest along a specified route.

Geocoding places assets accurately onto Virtual Earth using the best geocoder technology currently available.

Driving directions and multipoint routing optimizes travel schedules and improves driver efficiency.

Map annotation and drawing permits customization of a variety of map elements, including tile layers, and the addition of GeoRSS feeds and information boxes. (GeoRSS is a method of encoding location information in RSS feeds.)

Web services allow you to rapidly and broadly disseminate Virtual Earth applications to any user that has an Internet-enabled PC with a standard browser.

Interoperability makes it easy to integrate Virtual Earth with existing line of business systems. You can even extend your investment in ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute), which offers a platform for creating, collecting, editing, and storing geographic information, so you can to view your points, lines, and polygons on top of Virtual Earth.

Localization is supported in the Virtual Earth application programming interface (API) along with localized maps and driving directions in 13 languages.