Have you heard about Microsoft Virtual Earth?
By Satta Sarmah
On Wednesday, I was making the long trek from Chicago’s South Side to Evanston when an advertisement on the red line train grabbed my attention.
The ad was for Rubloff, the nearly 80-year-old Chicago real estate company, which is attempting to modernize its business by offering potential buyers valuable information and services on its Web site.
The content of the ad made me take notice. It mentioned something about an interactive map that also showed school statistics and demographics for neighborhoods with available properties.
Intrigued by the ad, I checked out the map online and learned that it also shows demographic information according to zip code. When I typed in my zip code, 60201, Rubloff’s map gave me stats on the different ethnic groups in the area, the average home price, annual household income and number of businesses in the community.
Rubloff’s map was somewhat impressive, but what struck me most about it was that it wasn’t powered by Google Earth or Google Maps. It used a program I never even knew existed–Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Google Earth and Google Maps seem to be the preeminent mapping technologies for news organizations and businesses. But the newest release of Virtual Earth may present some competition for these platforms.
Apparently, Virtual Earth was launched in November of 2006 as a replacement for Microsoft’s original mapping platform, Live Local. When it was launched, Virtual Earth included features such as 3D viewing, zooming and mash-ups.
The latest release of Virtual Earth is geared towards businesses. Microsoft’s Web site says the program will help businesses innovate online by “creat[ing] engaging applications for your customers and develop[ing] powerful ways to visualize business information by combining online maps with your integrated data.”
Virtual Earth also includes several tools and add-ins. One of them is the MapCruncher, which allows users to import and layer maps they’ve created into Virtual Earth. Though data created in Google Earth can be viewed in Google Maps, it seems that neither platform currently gives users the capability to import their own specialized maps.
Like the Google applications, Virtual Earth may be a good tool for conveying news and information. Though it has mostly been used for business solutions, Virtual Earth has also been used for civic purposes.
In March, people in France were able to visualize results of the country’s municipal elections using Virtual Earth. The mapping platform helped French residents see which political party won municipal elections held in nearly 37,000 cities and towns throughout the country.
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