The Microsoft MapPoint business unit has officially changed it's name to the Microsoft Virtual Earth Business Unit. We'll maintain the MapPoint branding for our products, but moving forward our online platform will be called Virtual Earth, as well as...

I received some great feedback from some blogreaders and thought I'd open a post on unpublished Bird's Eye Imagery. I can't say what's coming (pressure from pressing thumb) but I can say the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas...

User: We are using MapPoint to show servcie provider territories. In some states, we have more than 8 service providers, so when we import the state data, only the first 8 service providers are showing up. Is there a way to change this vs having to go...

Virtual Earth has some new bird's eye imagery . . . Detroit, Michigan. Specifically, around Ford Field. Can you guess why? http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=42.339123~-83.046683&style=o&lvl=2&scene=3778901

The new SDK for MapPoint Web Service 4.1 is available for download and online browsing. Bonus - it works with Visual Studio 2005 (as well as supporting older versions). You can download the new SDK here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/mappoint/ .

If you're running MWS at all, you've been automatically updated. You've gotta love a non-breaking change. If you missed my early post on what's included, check them out here .

For those of you MapPoint users who work in or with government agencies, Microsoft now has a page dedicated to the space complete with demos, sale items, and case studies. Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/industries/government/gov_challenges...

Finally some MapPoint representation for MapPoint in EMEA. What the heck is EMEA? Europe, Middle East and Asia. Arnaud Gstach has started a MapPoint blog to keep our fans across the pond abreast of "mappennings" - I just made that word up. Let's see...

Conference details have been announced for the Where 2.0 conference which will be in San Jose this year: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/where2006/ . I'll be there. Will you?

The time has come to say good-bye to MSN Maps and Directions and say hello to Windows Live Local. The product team has decided that in order for everyone to appreciate Windows Live Local, users need to stop using MSN Maps and Directions and be force fed...

The Windows Live Local product team is planning on retiring the Virtual Earth Beta 1 release on February 12, 2006. That means any applications you've built that haven't been moved over to Beta 2 ( see this blog entry ) need to get moved before then or...

We all know how cool Virtual Earth is and the integration MSN Local Search has made it more than just a mapping site - it's Windows Live Local for crying out loud! But, this effort was aided from the MSN Local Search team who was using MapPoint Web Service...

Ok, it's official. We're doing an MWS release, it's called 4.1 and it's coming in January 2006. Here are the customer ready details of the release: Expanded Map Coverage MapPoint Web Service 4.1 includes new data sources that bring updated worldwide...

I'm so sick of scouring through MSDN to find this and I just can't seem to bookmark it: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/MapPoint2006/ALLGettingStarted.asp

This site is pretty sick. They took the VE map control and search results and have created their own interface into mapping business listings: http://atlas.freshlogicstudios.com/ . Correction: I originally posted that this site was using MSN Local...

I've fielded a few concerns around how to access your custom icons in MWS. The documentation around this is sparse, so I thought I'd blog it. The icons you upload into the Customer Service Site / Microsoft Extranet are stored in your account's root...