Recall that this week Microsoft announced the launch of an exciting new search product called Bing. The new site will begin rolling out on June 1st and will be available to the world on June 3rd at www.Bing.com. So what does this mean for the Virtual Earth brand and Microsoft’s web mapping services? From Microsoft, a rep informs us that Location information, mapping, and imagery are important investment areas for online search. Therefore, Microsoft has taken this opportunity to align the brand names of their mapping products and on June 1, the mapping platform brand will change from Microsoft Virtual Earth to Bing maps for enterprise (Bing.com/maps).
What this means to you as a Virtual Earth user (source: Microsoft):
· If you’re using the Virtual Earth, MapPoint™ Web Service, or Multimap APIs, the logo on your maps will change to Bing automatically on June 1. This is a logo change and does not affect performance or functionality.
· You will see updates to our Web sites and case studies over the coming weeks, where Bing maps for enterprise will replace references to Virtual Earth.
· The API Terms of Use will be updated to replace the Microsoft Virtual Earth name with Bing maps for enterprise, but there is no other change to the terms. And no… programmers need not worry as the API calls will not change. If you refer to Microsoft Virtual Earth on your Web site, we would like you to change your implementation to use the new name as soon as possible.
