More imagery for Microsoft Virtual Earth thanks to deal with DigitalGlobe

Man, Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping service just gets better all the time... for imagery this service simply can't be beat! Details of today's announcement with DigitalGlobe include a multi-year contract under which DigitalGlobe will provide Microsoft’s Virtual Earth with its premium, high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will have access to DigitalGlobe’s vast ImageLibrary, which contains over 460 million square kilometers of premium earth imagery, as well as new images being collected every day by its growing constellation of satellites. Recall DigitalGlobe has highest-resolution satellites QuickBird and WorldView-1 hard at work and WorldView II will be coming in the near future. See more

Imagery over Old Town fort Collins, Co as seen via Virtual Earth

Update to Microsoft Virtual Earth, VE Web Services and Maps for Mobile Devices

Good news from the VE Blog about release 6.2... it's here along with version 1.0 of the Virtual Earth Web Services. The following features come in this release:
- Maps for Mobile Devices... (WOOHOO) Develop mobile applications with rich imagery optimized specifically for mobile devices, including the iPhone. The new mobile-optimized features are supported in the new Virtual Earth Web Services.
- Bird’s Eye Views and Bird’s Eye Hybrid. Exclusive to Microsoft, these unique views of real-world locations provide insight into “what it’s like there.” Bird’s eye hybrid adds street names to the bird’s eye maps to provide end users better visual context and orientation.
- Aerial Imagery. Leverage the impact of high-resolution aerial images from leading imagery providers.
- 3D Imagery. Create more realistic 3D views of buildings and landscapes, featuring denser city models.
- Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding. Get the most accurate locations around the world through integration of multiple geocoders and datasets with MapView, Reverse IP, and Culture to provide the most relevant and accurate results. And find the closest street address based only on latitude and longitude coordinates from a GPS or other geospatial device.
- International Geocoding. Your customers can now find international addresses with reverse geocoding, available anywhere Virtual Earth has routing.
- Localized Directions. Get localized driving or walking directions in 15 languages.
- Localized Maps.
- Extended International Parsing Capabilities.
- Expanded Number of Rooftop Views.
- Near-Matching Capabilities. using alternate and similar spellings, resulting in a more relevant search experience.
- Imagery Metadata.
- New Virtual Earth Web Services.
- One-Click Directions.
- Shapes and Shape Layers.
- Pushpin Clustering.
- Landmark-Based Routing.
- Driving Directions with Traffic-Based Routing.
- Walking Directions.
- Multipoint Routing.
- Traffic Reports.
- GeoRSS Feeds.
- Weather Integration.

See complete details here

Bookmark this Webcast about the release

see Also http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/

Mashup maps Impact of Hurricane Gustav on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico

Brian over at the Timoney group has share details of some work his team did over the labor-day week-end to help convey the impacts of hurricane Gustav on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. the mashup shows natural gas, pipelines, platforms in the gulf along with data for each oil provider - See GulfImpact - the application is powered by Microsoft's virtual Earth platform

TerrasServer.com VS Microsoft TerrasServer USA

I have to admit, I've wondered about this one for years. I recall stumbling onto the Microsoft resource and wondered "how do they get away with this"? What I mean is that commercial data provider terraserver.com is now finally taking Microsoft to court over their imagery project trademark. Should be interesting to see how this one pans out - most likely the big guy will prevail in court (don't they always??)

TerraServer.com is a commerical imagery provider. Users can subscribe to their services and receive updates. Data can also be downloaded and posters and prints are also for sale. The site has a strong consumer focus (ie. want to buy a print of a celebrity's home?) but there's also loads of imagery available for a GIS base (ie. data from Pictometry and others). FYI, TerraServer was founded in 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina with the simple purpose of finding a commercial market for satellite imagery and aerial photography.

TerraServer.com - Commercial Imagery provider

Microsoft's resource (TerraServer USA) has been developed with a partnership in place with the USGS. Users can easily access topos and aerial photos. An online viewer enables you to easily browse USGS quads and then download for use. Personally, I don't know of many users or orgs who depend on this site for their data.

Microsoft's TerraServer USA

Both sites serve a purpose, however, I'd go to some of the many other free data providers before these one (see http://gisdata.blogspot.com). There's also USGS seamless data distn (http://seamless.usgs.gov/) or my favorite, the USDA Geospatial data gateway

Yahoo! and Google sitting in a tree... K I S S I N G...

Interesting to see how Yahoo! is looking to Google for help in serving up ads for their search results. this comes as Yahoo! tries to fend off hostile takeover from Microsoft. Could Google possible own any more of the online ad space?? see more on CNN
Microsoft had this to say in a recent PR... "Any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands. This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo! We will assess closely all of our options. Our proposal remains the only alternative put forward that offers Yahoo! shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers."

Amazing Bird's Eye imagery (Microsoft) from Zillow

Have you noticed the amazing (and recent) imagery now available on popular real estate website Zillow.com? Simply search a property and obtain a zestimate. then click the "see home info" link provided for the property. You will be returned with a Bird's eye view served up via Microsoft Virtual Earth. The image will be a high-res, accurately geolocated image that rivals that of low-altitude aerial photography... quite cool. Most of the imagery that I saw appears to have been captured within the last year.

Sample Bird's eye image from Zillow.com

Virtual Earth interactive SDK and eVA emergency procurement demo

If you want to mess around with Virtual Earth a little then the VE for Government blog has pointed us to some fine resources of interest. For starters, the Virtual Earth interactive SDK lets you test some of the functionality, complete with video tutorial and online help. Taking this one step further, a full-blown active site showing some of the things you can accomplish with the SDK can be found at the eVA Emergency Procurement Mapping System (BETA) website. The application is meant to help users locate essential items during a time of crisis.

FME 2008 to Offer Read and Write Support for SQL Server Spatial

This out of Safe Software this morning as FME 2008 beta now supports the new spatial data capabilities made available in the new SQL Server 2008 November Community Technology Preview (CTP). What this means is Microsoft users can now use FME to read and write SQL Server-based spatial data, as well as over 200 other CAD, GIS, raster and database formats. They can also use it to integrate non-spatial and spatial data for loading into SQL Server 2008. In the FME 2008 beta, SQL Server users will be able to see firsthand how they can use FME’s powerful data translation, transformation and integration capabilities to read and write spatial data to SQL Server 2008.

read more | digg story

Locating a Starbucks With Virtual Earth 6.0 Maps

Looking for a Java fix? If so then the Starbucks store locator powered by VE 6 is the answer. Apparently the application has been updated with the latest goodies, according to the VE blog - Starbucks recently gave their store locator a face lift and in doing so migrated to the latest Virtual Earth mapcontrol. In addition to the obvious basic locator capabilities, you can filter for stores that have attributes like WiFi access or an iTunes music store, get directions, and find events in stores. All of the unique platform features of VE are exposed such as Autorefresh, 3D navigation and Birds eye views. Try the starbucks store locator here - or simply go to starbucks.com from your mobile web browser.

Microsoft Virtual Earth adds 10TB of new imagery

Not to be outdone... Microsoft has added loads of new imagery (like 10TB worth!) to the Virtual Earth library including obliques, 3D, and orthos. Via way of the MS VE blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/) we see that the following areas now have updated imagery.. enjoy!
New / Updated cities in 3D
Augusta, GA
Denver, CO
Avondale, AZ
Gilbert, AZ
Glendale, AZ
Mesa, AZ
Peoria, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Tempe, AZ
Tuscon, AZ
Fort Worth (West), TX
Chicago, IL
Coral Springs, FL,
Nashville Opry, TN

New / Update Oblique Imagery (Bird's Eye)
New York / Newark, NY/NJ
Los Angeles / Long Beach / Huntington Beach, CA
Chicago, IL
Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix, AZ
San Diego / Oceanside, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
Miami, FL
Boston, MA
Seattle, WA
Houston, TX
Denver, CO
Las Vegas, NV
Portland, OR
Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN
Ft. Worth, TX
Sacramento, CA
Atlanta, GA
Detroit, MI
Baltimore, MD
Austin, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Indianapolis, IN
Tampa, FL
St. Petersburg, FL
Milwaukee, WI
New Orleans, LA
Orlando, FL
Birmingham, AL
Cincinatti, OH
Niagara Falls / Buffalo, NY
Eastbourne, United Kingdom
Gloucester, United Kingdom
Swindon, United Kingdom
Bristol, United Kingdom
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Wolver hampton, United Kingdom
North Hampton, United Kingdom
Plymouth, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom
Rome, Italy
Berlin, Germany

New Orthos (Ultracam)
Tucson,AZ
Glendale, AZ
Tempe, AZ
Mesa, AZ
Glendale, CA
Orlando, FL
Coral Springs, FL
Miami, FL
Orlando International, FL
Tallahassee, FL
Atlanta, GA
Augusta, GA
Chicago, IL
Oak Park, IL
Springfield, MA
Worcester, MA
Detroit, MI
Gresham, OR
Providence, RI
Mt. Rushmore, SD
Sturgis, SD
Rapid City, SD
Nashville Opry, TN
Knoxville, TN
Fort Worth (West), TX
Fort Worth, TX
Liverpool, Great Britain
Vannes, France
Lachine, Canada
Edmonton, Canada

Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth... capturing the image DNA in 3D

I learned about this amazing research project via a recent press release from Microsoft .. the technology is being used to create
3-D images of the space shuttle Endeavour and surrounding buildings at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

With Photosynth you can:

- Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
- Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it's megapixels or gigapixels in size.
- See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
- Find similar photos to the one you're currently viewing.
- Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend.

how it works:

Each photo is processed by computer vision algorithms to extract hundreds of distinctive features, like the corner of a window frame or a door handle. Photos that share features are then linked together in a web. When the same feature is found in multiple images, its 3D position can be calculated.

Imagine storing the image DNA. Photosynth could then show you other photos that have similar features to the one you're currently viewing. Imagine capturing a photo of the Statue of Liberty for example... you can then immediately access information about the feature via WiKipedia etc...

See Microsoft Live Labs - http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

The IE web browsing experience

Don't you just love the wonderful Web browsing experience that IE provides you, particularly when you get these messages ;0)

Fast Company slams Google's "real time" street views

More "ripping" on Google's Street Views... this time its from Fast Company. In an "interesting" read, the publication not onl;y refers to the high-res imagery as a form of stalking (I assume because you can make out people's identities) but in an amusing piece of mis-information they even refer to the imagery as being real time! Come on man, the images were like take several months ago. The article rounds up by noting that people are still trying to determine the usefulness of the imagery. I for one find them useful for helping locate a building or address by taking a virtual stroll down the street prior to actually going there. In a somewhat related matter. Microsoft will soon be rolling out additional 3D street-level imagery for the following cities: Austin, Texas; Cape Coral, Florida; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; Savannah, Georgia; and Tampa, Florida. Northampton, England, and Ottawa, Canada - recall New York was recently rolled out in high-res by the company.

HD View viewer from Microsoft Research's Interactive Visual Media group

A side note on something cool from Microsoft research - HD View is a new viewer developed by Microsoft Research's Interactive Visual Media group to aid in the display and interaction with very large images. From the team... HD View was developed with a number of goals in mind. It should:

allow smooth panning and zooming on large images, only download enough data to create the current view (and possibly look ahead to the next), and always display the current field of view with an appropriate projection. This means that when zoomed way in you should be presented with a standard perspective projection providing a sense of immersion, and when zoomed out you experience a curved projection so that get a full overview of the scene. In between the projection should smoothly transition. Finally, it should be easy to create your own HD View content and present it to the world via the web. Create your own HD View content - here's a very cool sample... Harlem-13-gigapixels A massive 13 Gigapixel panorama created by stitching 2045 12 Megapixel photographs http://www.harlem-13-gigapixels.com/harlem_hdview.html - See details of HD View at http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/HDView.htm

City of Boston Enterprise Application Leverages Virtual Earth using .NET and ArcGIS technology

San Fran-based Farallon Geographics has completed an clever, online 2D / 3D mapping project for the City of Boston’s economic development agency - the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Farallon implemented a web application to integrate the City's permitting system with an enterprise databases using GIS. Fast and simple access to 2D & 3D maps, City GIS data, and project specific redevelopment information, was developed using web services that dynamically overlay GIS results onto Virtual Earth. The result is a clever mashup that will no doubt make you think about Microsoft Virtual Earth. Here's some specs about the application as provided in an official announcement released by Farallon... Farallon developed a web application that integrates BRA’s new SQL database with additional BRA and enterprise databases using GIS. Microsoft's Virtual Earth web mapping platform is used as the foundation of the BRA's Redevelopment Project Tracking portal. Geospatial analysis, such as the proximity of a project to City infrastructure, is accomplished using the BRA's ArcSDE/SQL Server and ArcGIS Server 9.2 technologies. Farallon developed web services (using .NET and ArcGIS technology) to dynamically overlay these GIS results onto Virtual Earth. Check out images of the application at http://www.fargeo.com/case_studies/images/bra/

Any uses for Windows Live writer?

Just curious but is anyone out there using the Windows Live writer for anything? I noticed Jeff tested it the other day. I have to admit that I installed and tested it way back and since then have not really found any useful reason to go back and use it again. I have to admit that my PC was getting really bogged down and running like a gutless pig so during my weekly clean-up, defrag, yadayada I removed all the malware, crapware, spyware and whathave you... on the list of things that went included the Live writer app. I guess if I was an avid user of "Spaces" I'd likely find it a bit more useful - see http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/ for more on this topic.