Managed Maps for Your Site

Yesterday nsquared released managedchatroom, the easiest way put a chat room on your web site. Did you know we produced managedmaps as well? We've made it simple to add a Bing map to your web page, just copy the code and go!

managedmaps enables you to add a full color interactive map to your own web site for only $10 per month using your Windows Live ID. Use the map to view communities worldwide in Road and Aerial view, and add pushpins to locations of your choosing. It’s fun to use and easy to add a map to your site. Check out managedmaps!

The Mapping Product Formerly Known as Virtual Earth

What is this? Virtual Earth is now Bing Maps for Enterprise?? Well, except for the long name, it makes sense to us.

With the release of Bing as Microsoft's new search engine, or "decision engine" as one news release called it, it seems timely that Microsoft should condense their branding. Bing Maps for Enterprise is the platform that underlies the Maps portion of Bing. It will also be the new brand name behind the thousands of Virtual Earth maps utilized by businesses worldwide, on their websites, in their solutions, and as part of their applications.

Is this just a change in the watermark, or is there more to it? From my understanding, the API calls will remain the same, using the Virtual Earth references. The terms of use will also remain the same except for the name, so no need to review them again. The only thing Virtual Earth/Bing Maps for Enterprise users need concern themselves with is if they refer to Virtual Earth on their website or have implemented a Virtual Earth logo themselves. These should be changed by September 1, 2009 at the latest.

So have a go - check out www.bing.com/maps and have a look at the new branding.

Did you know nsquared is your expert on mapping tools! Contact us for help integrating maps with your website or applications!

bing (beta) is Live

Or is it that Live is bing? Whichever way you look at it, bing is set to change our expectations of search engines and already leads the way. bing beta went live at around 11am Australian time on Monday. The staged rollout was completed in around 24 hours, and the results look great.
We took a peak at the preview that was released earlier and have spent some time exploring Microsoft’s new search engine over the last day. We’re impressed to find that it does what the preview promises. Better search results, with great context and heaps of extra information that you don’t get without spending more time on other search engines. Perhaps it’s best that we reserve our judgment until at least day two, but from what we’ve seen today, we think the other search engines are now playing catch up.