Virtual Earth Powered Live Search Maps Expanding

<p>Just a quick entry on a couple of recent <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/platform" target="_blank">Virtual Earth</a> related activities around the <a href="http://www.virtualearth.com" target="_blank">Live Search Maps</a> consumer targeted site and not necessarily directly relevant to <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/industry/government.aspx" target="_blank">Virtual Earth for the Public Sector</a> EXCEPT that we are all consumers at the end of the day (some more so than others, I suppose). Additionally, these latest initiatives underscore Microsoft's commitment to its <a href="http://www.live.com" target="_blank">Search</a> offering which of course includes the Virtual Earth platform. I think these recent announcements suggest that Virtual Earth is going to gain increased global exposure which should only advance our innovations around the platform. <p>First up, the Virtual Earth team in China just released <a href="http://ditu.live.com" target="_blank">Live Search Maps for China</a>. The site provides search, Collections, and public transit features for over 100 cities with 7 million business listings. Be sure to brush up on your Chinese before you attempt to visit the site. <p><a href="http://tkfiles.storage.msn.com/y1pyJQc6Yo2cX76iA9lfHFccp7OK40M3LdrwUYDk8WlEilpEfp 0l--z4dAQp_Y6oN-T8Iv3YIOHaMQ?PARTNER=WRITER"><img style="border-right:0px;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-bottom:0px" height=417 alt="maps_china" src="http://tkfiles.storage.msn.com/y1pyJQc6Yo2cX5U_N9wPL3YJolLY5Bi5TtmGDjs9fSaNWe3oPG rS_skK7ZDx42MSIiBiztbZ8ffwmA?PARTNER=WRITER" width=640 border=0></a> <p>Next, Microsoft announced yesterday our acquisition of <a href="http://www.multimap.com/" target="_blank">Multimap</a>, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The full press release can be found <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/dec07/12-12MultimapPR.mspx" target="_blank">here</a>.<img src="http://c.services.spaces.live.com/CollectionWebService/c.gif?cid=3934802439182364865&page=RSS%3a+Virtual+Earth+Powered+Live+Search+Maps +Expanding&referrer=" width="1px" height="1px" border="0" alt=""><img style="position:absolute" alt="" width="0px" height="0px" src="http://c.live.com/c.gif?NC=31263&NA=1149&PI=73329&RF=&DI=3919&PS=85545&TP=virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com&GT1=virtualearth4gov">

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