In my last post I was ruminating on a comment from Stefan Geens of the Ogle Earth blog. He states the new Collections feature in Live Local is easy enough that now even his mom can make a mashup. I went and talked to our software architect, Gur, about that this afternoon. He refers to WLL Collections as Mixins as opposed to mashups when displayed and used within the  WLL app. If you use a Collection with our Map Control in your own application, that would be a mashup. OK, I'll buy it. I think I like 'Instant mashed' better than Mixin though ;-)

 

Here is a look at some examples to help this all make sense.

 

This first link opens Windows Live Local with a Collection that one of our users created that displays Traffic Cameras along major roads in Charlotte, North Carolina:

 

 

Gur would call this a Mixin - User Generated content, displayed directly in WLL. I'm stickin with Instant Mashed. Either way, the important part is the CID parameter which uniquely identifies this users collection. No code required of course.

 

Now here is the same collection in a simple javascript application I created:

 

 

Most would call this a mashup - User generated content from one web service being combined with some other web service. Here the developer has complete control over their application and it's Interface. To load a WLL Collection in your own javascript based app is brain-dead easy. You can thank Chandu and his team for this - they added a method to the VE map control to load a Collection as a layer like this:

 

 

Take a look at the LayerSource Property - Notice the value is simply the Unique CID used on the WLL URL above! simple. A pushpin is automatically created for each element of the Collection, and if you want to get at the data of the Collection, just provide a callback and it'll be passed the data so you can display it on the page or whatever you need to do with it.

 

Stands to reason that you should be able to do this with any WLL Collection. Here is a CID for a Collection of Videos for Beach Neighborhoods from TurnHere.com - C87924605CB4D87E!101  using it, we can create a Mixin that shows the videos and surf shops near each beach location.

 

 

 All we've done is updated the CID parameter, and added a new parameter to add an autorefreshing layer of Surf Shops from WLL's Yellow Page directory.

 

And here's the Beach Collection in a classic mashup:

 

all I did here was change one line in the first application to reference the Beach Collections's CID.

 

If your not a programmer, but want to create mashups like Stefan's mom, Learn how to create a Collection with this simple tutorial, then read about all of the URL parameters you have at your disposal (like CID=) and start mixing.

 

And if you're a javascript coder, flex your ajax muscle and check out the V3 Virtual Earth SDK. It of course supports Collections, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

 

 

 

This quote from Stefan Geens on the OgleEarth blog caught my eye this morning:

 

 

It's not really a mashup as i've seen the term used recently. Collections are potentially more discoverable than the average mashup. But when you combine them with our new VE Map Control and it's support for GeoRSS and Collections, then you have a what i think most would refer to as a mashup. I've got to go away and think about that for a minute.

 

Nice to see Frank Taylor at the Google Earth Blog taking note of some of the imagery work our team has been doing. The fruits of this effort are the high res color balanced imagery for the UK we just released. Our imagery team is lead by Tom Barclay from Microsoft Research, who created Terraserver back in the day.

 

I didn't see Frank mention Bird's Eye imagery for the UK, which also has begun to rollout on WLL. I'll drop him a mail about it to let him know as it isn't all that discoverable today due to just 10 or 12 cities being covered. but that will expand greatly real soon. Why is it important? Try this comparison using the Millenium Dome as a subject

 

Here it is at Live Local.

 

Here is the same spot in Google Maps.

 

It's easy to see the point Frank is making above. Both scenes are very high resolution, but the WLL imagery is sharp and color balanced. But in neither can you really tell what you are looking at - If I didn't know better I'd guess a UFO has invaded London.

 

Now look at the same location in Birds Eye mode at WLL. Now your seeing the whole picture. you can zoom in and rotate Birds eye imagery as well, offering a very unique and powerful way to explore an area.

·         Windows Live Local Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook^® brings maps and driving directions directly into the Outlook Calendar. Windows Live Local Add-in for Outlook helps users efficiently manage their schedules by integrating location-based information such as maps, driving directions and travel times from Windows Live Local into Outlook appointments. 

–        New appointment location tab. Users can see maps and directions for meeting locations within Outlook Calendar items and meeting requests. They can save snapshots of maps and direction information for appointments and can view the information offline.

–        New enhanced location dialog box. Users can obtain mapping information, directions and estimated travel time to scheduled meetings by typing in the meeting location.

–        Travel buffers. Users can accept meeting requests with estimated travel times for multiple locations and adjust meeting start times according to estimated travel time. They can send and receive reminder alerts based on required travel time.

–        Print and share maps. Users can print maps and directions directly from within Outlook and send maps and directions to meeting attendees. Nonusers can view snapshots of these maps and directions through e-mail or through their MSN Spaces blog.

The final bits of our latest release are just about done flowing from our staging servers to our Live site. If you are actually awake and reading this, be one of the first to check out the biggest release yet of Windows Live Local. Its been a real long day, so I'm not gonna list all of the new feature here right now, but I'll follow on tomorrow with some feature drill downs. Here's a few links to get you started.

 

Somes sites today try to visualize traffic as points on  map. This is ok, but difficult to really use. you need to study the dots and piece together in your head what traffic is really doing. Traffic flow maps on the other hand color the road segments based on actual real-time traffic conditions. At a glance, you can see what traffic is like in your hood. We've implemted this for over 30 major metros in this release. I fyou turn on the Traffic layer, then zoom into your city you can create a permalink and bookmark it, then return to it whenever you need to check on traffic. here is one for Chicago.

 

We've been busy working with our flight partners around the world to gather the same high quality, low elevation fly over imagery that we have in the United States. Here is a Collection of some of the cites we have covered. More are coming in the UK, as well as other Countries soon TBA.

 

We've introduced street maps, geocoding, and directions all over the world. I'll post a full geo-coverage tomorrow. for now, try out a route from Paris to Kyiv.

 

Collections!

Feedback from our users in our last release was that they loved the Scratchpad, but wanted more. Bigger lists, multiple lists, permanent storage, sharing... We've done all of that and more. In this release, you can sign in with your Passport or LiveID to create permanent Collections of stuff. you can have as many of these Collections as you want. They can be Private (for your eyes only) or Public (visible to anyone on the net). You can attach photos and web links to items in your collection as well. Here's a Collection of stuff to do in Oahu.  or Reviews of Ski resorts in the North West. The screenshot below shows what happens when you mash up WashDot Traffic cams with WLL Traffic. Here's a permalink to try it out yourself! You get the idea - really no limits to what you can collect and share. Check out Pass The POI for an ever growing list of public Collections. 

 

We've jammed an absolutely sick amount of features in the new API for developers. Support for Collections, geocoding, routing, GeoRSS feeds, Yellow page searching, international support, Interactive SDK... Alex has a lot more details on his blog.

 

 

That's not even all of the big-rock features in this release, let alone the enhancements. I promise more tomorrow, but for now i'm to dreamy land. In the meanwhile lots of blogs and online pubs have great coverage of the release. Check out Michael Arrington on TechCrunch and Elinor Mills on Cnet/news.com.

 

 

The 10th annual CEO Summit took place here on Microsoft Campus this week. A hundred or so execs representing a variety of industries gather to discuss technology and business issues. Virtual Earth was one of the two product groups invited to show technology demos! Our GM, Stephen Lawler, showed off a number of applications where customers have integrated the Virtual Earth platform into core line of business applications, including a killer app from BP. You can watch the video of the event here and jump in to about 45 minutes to see the Virtual Earth Segment. This interview with Kevin Johnson highlights the value of Location technologies when tightly integrated into LOB apps. Here is an Excerpt:

 

Bill Gates today talked about businesses being more willing than before to have their know-how, their data and their software running on other people's servers. Which types of applications lend themselves most to that?

Johnson: When it comes to line-of-business applications, different size customers will look at different scenarios and apply decisions relative to things that they would want to run on premise, versus things that they would look to have hosted and run as a service.

I'd just highlight the demo that was done (at Wednesday's CEO Summit) around Virtual Earth, and this concept of mash-ups. Look at the scenario that they showed around British Petroleum; that's a line-of-business application that's very important to them, the way they look at weather patterns and things in the Gulf of Mexico, where they've got these offshore rigs, and how that's going to influence business decisions that they take.

(They are) running a service with our Virtual Earth technology running on our severs combined with some technology that they run on premise that mashes up an application that's relevant to them. I think we're going to see more and more of those types of applications.

 

 

 

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and Microsoft announced a partnership yesterday that includes mention of NGA's use of the Virtual Earth platform. NGA's vision to "Know the Earth, Show the Way" is backed by the best GIS and mapping tools in existence. Microsoft and the VE team are proud to have our platform and technologies chosen to join NGA's already amazing toolbox.   

 

 

 

 

This week Cendant announced they'll be using the Virtual Earth platform to provide mapping and location technologies to their real estate web sites. Unless you work in the real estate industry, you may not know Cendant. But you certainly know their brands - Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA...  It'll be interesting to see what the largest real estate sites can do, armed with the industries richest online mapping platform.  

 

John L. Scott is one of the Pac North Wests most popular consumer real estate sites. This week they announced the completion of a major update to the mapping and location technology on their site, migrating from an ESRI and Google mashup to an application built on the Virtual Earth platform. "High Definition Home Search" utilizes VE for Geocoding, vector and aerial maps, and routing capabilities. Additionally, the integration of VE's Birds Eye Imagery gives JLC an unfair advantage over their competitors allowing visitors to their site to examine a property from 4 different directions before visiting it. Pretty nice job they did on the UI as well. BE imagery is great for just surfing around exploring an area, but when well integrated into a specific task like home shopping, it really shines.

Sorry we've been so quiet of late here on the VE blog. Your feedback in our last feature purchase has been keeping us busy. As a result, work on the next major release of Windows Live Local and the Virtual Earth API has been humming along and I think we've got most of the major requests covered.

 

A couple of big acquisition announcements were made today. First up is Vexcel, which was mentioned here a few weeks back. the deal is now final  - press release here:

 

 

Microsoft also announced the acquisition of Massive Inc., Pioneers of in-game advertising

 

 

Fun stuff. check out their website for more details.

 

in other VE platform related news, its great to see so many commercial application developers incorporating the VE platform into their software. The Fox news NY affiliates have launched a traffic and traffic cam site this past week, and a bunch of other interesting apps are being readied for launch.

 

that's enough newsy stuff for now. Here's my favorite Birds Eye Tourist link of the past few weeks.