Yes, the Virtual Earth application programming interface (API) has printing capability.

No, currently Virtual Earth does not support the iPhone.

The Virtual Earth platform encompasses the next evolution of the MapPoint Web Service offering with innovative new capabilities. The Virtual Earth platform represents a richer, more powerful offering from Microsoft for companies in all industries.

Developers have the flexibility to tap into two Virtual Earth APIs: the MapPoint Web Service API using SOAP XML to communicate with customer applications, and the Virtual Earth map control, which lets users make requests via JavaScript to an AJAX map object.

The Virtual Earth platform encompasses the next evolution of the MapPoint Web Service offering with innovative new capabilities. The Virtual Earth platform is not only a new brand name; it represents a richer, more powerful offering from Microsoft to companies of all industries.

Developers have the flexibility of tapping into one of the two Virtual Earth application programming interfaces (API): MapPoint Web Service API using SOAP XML to communicate with customer applications and Virtual Earth Map Control that lets users make request via JavaScript to an AJAX map object.

Existing applications built using MapPoint Web Service will continue to function as usual and will not experience degradations or changes in service. Microsoft will continue providing high-quality support and service to all existing MapPoint Web Service customers.

If a customer has an application built with the MapPoint Web Service API and would like to enhance it with new imagery and features available in the Virtual Earth map control, Microsoft provides a set of developer tools and resources. Customers may also want to consider working with a Virtual Earth partner.

The Microsoft Virtual Earth platform is an integrated set of services providing quality geospatial data, rich imagery, cutting-edge technology, and dependable performance that helps organizations visualize data and provide immersive end-user experiences. Live Search Maps, an online local search and mapping tool, is powered by Virtual Earth and enables people to learn, discover, and explore a specific location.

The Virtual Earth platform provides quality geospatial data, rich imagery, cutting-edge technology, and dependable performance that helps organizations visualize data and provide immersive end-user experiences. The Virtual Earth platform license comes with a 99.9% service level agreement and can be easily integrated with other Microsoft .NET-connected Web services and other Web service technologies.

The Virtual Earth platform is designed to enable a broad range of consumer, enterprise, and government applications. All of the following examples use the same core technology allowing developers to easily deploy all of these applications throughout an organization.

Companies can use the Virtual Earth platform to take advantage of the following services:

To find the most up-to-date coverage, please go to Geographic Coverage.

We constantly evaluate potential geographic enhancements and opportunities. Although we cannot comment on specific countries, we intend to improve our existing geographic data and imagery and add new countries and regions.

Interested developers can download the Virtual Earth Map Control Software Development Kit (SDK) and the MapPoint Web Service SDK and request an evaluation account and try the services out subject to the developer Terms of Use.

Customers purchase the Virtual Earth services as an annual subscription direct from Microsoft. There are two primary licensing models:

On the Partners page, you can search by product and by horizontal or vertical solution area. Visit the partners page.

When you join the Microsoft Partner Program, you create a profile that includes your Virtual Earth or MapPoint solution. You will be listed in the Microsoft Resource Directory with other solution providers, independent software vendors, consultants, training providers, and developers that work with Virtual Earth and Microsoft MapPoint technologies. Potential partners can find more information.

We always welcome inquiries from potential Virtual Earth technology partners. Find out how you can become a MapPoint and Virtual Earth technology partner.

Microsoft .NET is software for connecting information, people, systems, and devices through Web services. A ".NET-connected" application conforms to the core principles of being a Web service. Any application—Microsoft or third party—can be considered .NET connected. Learn more about Microsoft.NET.

Customer data uploads and other customer service site operations are encrypted using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections. All SOAP API calls to the MapPoint Web Service API must present customer-unique credentials, and customers can change their passwords at any time to protect their accounts from unauthorized access.

The Virtual Earth data center has a number of systems and processes in place to prevent and deal with security issues. Our systems also run the latest Microsoft operating systems and enterprise servers and are kept current with the most recent security patches.

Reverse geocoding is the ability to convert latitude and longitude coordinates into an address.

Yes, Virtual Earth supports reverse geocoding in the United States.

Virtual Earth currently has rooftop geocoding in the United States, Japan, and China.

Currently, Virtual Earth-3DVIA is for consumers. A commercial version will be available at a future date that will be announced.

The input formats are .pdf and raster image file types that Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation supports (.gif, .jpg, .png, and such).

This feature allows consumers to change from road or aerial view to a bird’s eye (45 degree) view of the map. Currently, this feature covers major metropolitan areas in the United States. As with the road and aerial map styles, you can use the standard navigation methods for moving a bird's eye image: you can click and drag the map, use the arrow keys on the keyboard, and use the PLUS SIGN (+) and HYPHEN (-) keys to zoom in and out. You can also click the zoom box to choose one of the two available zoom levels. Not available for government customers.

The Virtual Earth platform provides flexibility and customization for your applications. You can choose to have dynamic drag-n-drop maps available through the Virtual Earth map control or over 30 specialty static map styles available via the MapPoint Web Service API.

We are continually updating Virtual Earth with new imagery provided by our partners. Ensuring our customers have the best possible information from this new service is critical to us. We are working not only to update the existing aerial imagery but also to add new data such as bird’s eye and global satellite imagery. We are confident that future upgrades will continue to deliver a service that allows our customers to search locations like never before.

Virtual Earth can provide walking directions and driving directions.

Yes, Virtual Earth considers traffic to generate more efficient routes for customers.

Yes, Virtual Earth allows you to modify the look and feel of routes.

The recommended number is 25 points. Note that, regardless of the number of points, the time it takes to calculate the route is proportional to the total distance of the entire multipoint route.

No, in version 6.0, Virtual Earth routes in the order of the points.

Coverage includes traffic overlays for more than 50 major metropolitan areas in the United States.

Yes, Virtual Earth provides incident and construction traffic data.

Bird’s eye hybrid is bird’s eye imagery with roads and labels overlaid in perspective view.

Yes, now you can use bird’s eye and explore cities looking at buildings in 3D.

Virtual Earth version 6.1 is backwards compatible with version 6.0.

Microsoft will keep the previous Virtual Earth version (one version back) of Virtual Earth available for at least 12 months after the release of the most current version.

Virtual Earth supports Safari version 2 and 3 on Mac.

This is a requirement for business customers for authentication and for SLA support and may be required for other users to receive certain features in the future.

Yes.

Virtual Earth supports Keyhole Markup Language (KML) in the API.

Reports will include transaction counts per day broken down by APIs for a given date range by day and by API.

Reports can be accessed through the Virtual Earth Customer Services Site (CSS).

Yes.

You can get a customer identification feature by creating a Virtual Earth Platform Developer Account.

No.

The Virtual Earth map control is Safari compatible, and consequently MapCruncher’s output is Safari compatible too.

The Virtual Earth map control is AJAX-based and does not currently support integration with Visual Studio help system or with the WYSIWYG designers and editors. However, developers using Visual Studio’s Visual Web Developer still benefit from the debugging, code management, and other features.

The MapPoint Web Service SOAP SDK integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio help system. Once users have registered the MapPoint Web Service Web Services Description Language (WSDL) with their Visual Studio Solution, Visual Studio .NET automatically generates the methods and classes for the MapPoint Web Service. The MapPoint Web Service was built from the ground up to be a great .NET-connected Web service and is completely integrated with Visual Studio. Microsoft thinks Visual Studio is the best development environment to use with the MapPoint Web Service.

Yes, it can be programmatically accessed by virtually any development environment that conforms to the required standards. The MapPoint Web Service API is a standard SOAP XML-based Web service exposed through WSDL. Provided that your development platform of choice supports SOAP Web service standards, it can be used with MapPoint Web Service.

Because the Virtual Earth map control is a client-side component run in the Web browser, there is no dependency on the development environment. The control can be developed in any environment that can output standard HTML and JavaScript code for the client, even in environments that can only deliver static pages.

No. Any solution that consumes the Virtual Earth platform needs an Internet connection, but that doesn’t mean the Virtual Earth is only for Web applications. There are many instances where the Virtual Earth platform is part of a rich solution or automated process running on a server. Currently the map control is only supported running in a Web browser, but the SOAP APIs can be used with virtually any application architecture.

One of the design goals of the Virtual Earth platform is to deliver exceptional performance and scalability. For operations planning purposes and for problem identification and resolution, Microsoft’s response times are closely monitored. Virtual Earth serves a range of applications, including Live Search Maps and other Microsoft properties, which alone already generate millions of transactions per day with very high performance.

The end-user perception of the overall solution's performance rests on a combination of the programmable, XML-based service and the user interface solution being built. Microsoft provides extensive sample code and best practices to ensure optimal end-to-end performance for customers’ end users.

The Virtual Earth platform is device independent. We provide sample code and different map styles that are optimized for different devices, but there is always an application that sits on or between the device and the Virtual Earth platform.

Hosting and development services are available from our technology partners. We have carefully selected several technology partners that have proven success at providing these services to customers of the Virtual Earth platform.