Virtual Earth ASP.NET Controls Released!

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WOOHOO! Finally we’ve released the Virtual Earth ASP.NET Controls (Angus, dev.live.com and Live Side have the news). 

Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control - CTP Release

The control basically makes it much easier to get data from your database onto the map.  Before, it was difficult to do because you would need to get the data into a specific format (geoRSS, JavaScript etc.) and then pass it off to your JavaScript code and then get the data into the map.  Now, the control allows you to abstract all that work and get AJAX to handle the hand off.

This is something I’ve been waiting impatiently for, for quite a while because it makes it easier for developers to build really powerful mapping technology into their applications.  Given that around 80% of the world’s data has a geographic component there are many opportunities to get a powerful geo visualisation to allow people to make decisions more quickly.

Download the control as part of the Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio

The other controls that you can now easily pop into your apps include:

Map Control *new!* (reference) - link coming shortly 

Contacts Control (reference)

IDLogin Control (reference)

IDLoginView Control (reference)

MessengerChat Control (reference)

SilverlightStreamingMedia Control (reference)