May 2008

 

Virtual Earth Supports Local and Regional Government Agencies

In May, the departments of transportation for Texas and Ohio became the latest state agencies to utilize the geospatial services offered by Microsoft Corp.'s Virtual Earth platform. Virtual Earth provides tools to help public sector organizations manage data, connect to users more effectively, provide user-friendly Web sites for residents and much more. Both organizations recently added features to provide residents with the latest traffic information, accident details and traffic camera angles. Several other leading state and regional agencies in the U.S. already use Virtual Earth; these include the City of Miami, New York City and the Puget Sound region in Washington state. For more information on how public sector organizations are using Virtual Earth to develop geospatial applications, please visit the Microsoft Government page.

 

 

Virtual Earth Sponsors "Driving Retail Profit With Visualization Technologies" Webcast

On June 24, Paula Rosenblum, retail analyst and managing partner of Retail Systems Research LLC, and Deena Amato-McCoy, senior editor of Chain Store Age, will speak in an informational webcast to demonstrate how current location-based solutions help drive profit and customer satisfaction. Sponsored by Virtual Earth, the session will discuss how retailers can bolster their bottom line with the help of visualization technologies. The benefits technologies such as Virtual Earth can provide organizations and their customers increase customer loyalty by helping people easily find retail stores, helping predict inventory demand and sales revenue, and visualizing important business metrics. For more information on the webcast and registration, please visit the Virtual Earth Retail page.

 

 

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Partners With Microsoft to Keep Guests Connected on the Road

On May 14, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. announced a collaboration with Microsoft to co-brand and rename its signature business lounge in lobbies as "The Link @ Sheraton experienced with Microsoft." The enhanced hospitality experience offers Windows-based computers that allow guests to utilize specified amenities such as e-mail, search and maps, including Virtual Earth. The collaboration enables guests to work, relax and connect with friends and family members during their travels. Under the Microsoft agreement, Sheraton will roll out the co-branded lounge at more than 300 properties worldwide by the end of 2008. For more information, please read the press release.

 

 

Virtual Earth Visualizes Outdoor Advertising on Signposter.com

Signposter.com, a new company offering local businesses an easy way to plan, manage and create outdoor advertising posters in the U.K., has launched using Virtual Earth on its Web site. Virtual Earth enables customers to search available outdoor poster displays and bus advertising using their postal code or town and the distance around which they'd like to advertise. After choosing a location, customers can design a poster and book the advertising on the available ad spaces. The service launched in May, and more than 120 local businesses registered as users within the first week. For more information, please visit signposter.com.

 

 

Virtual Earth Partner Envision Helps Grundfos Climb Kilimanjaro to Raise Funds for African Children's Charity

On April 30, a team of fundraisers who climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro announced they have raised more than £94,000 ($186,100) for the South African Children's Resource for Education and Development (SACRED) Trust to purchase computers and help educate children in African townships. The 15-member team from Grundfos Management A/S climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with the aid of Virtual Earth partner Envision's mobile tracking and mapping solution to track their location. Developed in U.K.'s Yorkshire by Keighley-based solutions and software developer Rapid Innovations, the software was an essential part of the team's equipment, helping ensure that as they climbed, every step of the challenging expedition was monitored and tracked. The data gathered from the trek was transferred back to Envision, where it was plotted using Virtual Earth maps, and reports were produced to chart the progress of the five-day ascent. Get more information on this unique use of Virtual Earth.

 

 

7-Eleven Virtual Earth Store Locator Goes Live

Consumers can now more easily locate 7-Eleven stores all over the country using Virtual Earth. With 7-Eleven's recent implementation of Virtual Earth, after typing in a postal code and selecting optional store amenities, consumers will see 7-Eleven icons pop up at their specified locations on the platform. An additional pop-up window for a selected store provides the location address, contact information and store features for an enhanced consumer experience. For more information, please visit the Virtual Earth Evangelist's blog.

 

 

European Environment Agency and Microsoft Launch Alliance to Create Environmental Observatory

On May 14, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft announced a new five-year alliance to develop a leading online portal, bringing reliable and timely environmental information to more than 500 million people across Europe. The alliance with Microsoft is among the first steps in the EEA's broader vision and strategy to build a Global Observatory for Environmental Change. A key feature of the observatory will be its ability to show environmental information at the global, regional and local levels, allowing detailed comparisons of conditions in different parts of the continent and providing graphic illustrations of how particular events affect localities. The Virtual Earth platform will facilitate this advanced geospatial capability. For example, through utilizing Virtual Earth, the observatory can focus on an oil spill and show Europeans how it spreads and contaminates the seas. By using Virtual Earth, the observatory can provide people with a detailed, up-to-date picture of environmental conditions throughout Europe and a look at how they will be affected by environmental changes in different places, at different times. For more information, please visit EMEA Press Center.

 

 

Virtual Earth Changes the Landscape at Realcomm 2008

The annual Realcomm Conference, a place where real estate leaders come together to discuss the latest technologies impacting the real estate industry, will be held June 9–11 at the San Diego Convention Center. Chris Sampson, director of Worldwide Sales and Business Operations for Virtual Earth, will participate as a keynote presenter in the opening General Session of the conference. During the keynote, Sampson will explore the new virtual frontier of digital globes and discuss the ways Virtual Earth can provide the industry with an innovative way to inspect a property with an enhanced aerial experience. Get more information on Virtual Earth's role in the event. To register for the event, please visit http://www.realcomm.com.

 

 

Case Study: Washington State eCityGov Alliance Builds Connections With Virtual Earth

The eCityGov Alliance, a regional inter-local agency located in the Puget Sound region of Washington, develops cross-boundary, multifunctional Web sites where local residents can find online access to a suite of services including permitting, commercial property information, recreation resources, shared vendor rosters and more. The eCityGov Alliance turned to Virtual Earth to build an application where users can search, locate and see visual representations of parks, trails and recreational facilities across all eCityGov Alliance member cities, delivering a rich user experience on the Web site that helps regional residents get the most from local recreation resources. Read the entire case study.

 

 

German SüdWest Presse: First Online Publication Across Europe to Include Virtual Earth

SüdWest Presse is an online portal for more than 20 local newspapers in the south of Germany, generating roughly 5 million page impressions per month. The portal allows its consumers to find local news, events, branches and municipal information geocoded on a Virtual Earth map. By using Virtual Earth, SüdWest Presse is the first online publication across Europe that can offer such a service to its readers. View the portal.

 

 

Virtual Earth Demonstrates Hospitality Technology Integration at HiTEC 2008

Virtual Earth will be featured at the HiTEC 2008 conference in Austin, Texas, June 16–19. The Virtual Earth booth and invitation-only presentations will showcase and demo the integration of the platform into Carlson, a global group that provides hospitality and trip- planning services to consumers, corporations and government entities, as well as its integration into Neudesic's hospitality BI/CRM solution. Virtual Earth's participation at the event will serve to demonstrate its deep integration with businesses, ability to deliver rich Web site content to enhance customer experiences and visualize business data in a location context. For more information, please visit the HiTEC page.

 

 

Recent Updates

 

Microsoft Releases New Version of Live Search Maps for China

On May 16, the new version of Live Search Maps for China went live at http://ditu.live.com. Some of the key new and improved features include a Virtual Earth API for developers, Pinyin support for map search queries, improved traffic route quality, more accurate trip time estimation, refreshed transit data for 11 cities, geocoding supported by Pinyin correction, and an efficient new process for updating monthly data to provide more timely and more accurate maps and business listings. For more information, please visit the Virtual Earth / Live Maps blog.

 

 

April and May Virtual Imagery Updates

In April and May, the Virtual Earth team announced significant additions to the platform, including almost 70 terabytes of new imagery to Microsoft’s data center in Virginia and 22 terabytes of bird’s eye* and ortho imagery throughout cities in the United States, Canada, Australia, Greece and many more locations. The releases also feature updated 3-D models of Phoenix, Seattle, Vienna, Austria, and Miami, and new imagery in Austria from Intergraph, to support the EURO2008 Football competition. For more information, please visit the Virtual Earth Evangelist's blog.