• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 7, 2010

Microsoft turned Maps into an experience where consumers can immerse themselves in a 3D world, similar to the view an avatar might see walking through a video game or online virtual world. The Redmond, Wash. company did it with help from EveryScape, a Boston-based local search firm that developed one of the 32 applications now available in the Bing Map App Gallery.

Microsoft began allowing application developers to download the Bing Map App SDK and build apps to submit to the gallery on Monday. One of 32 apps available today comes from EveryScape.

EveryScape's Boston restaurant app turns eateries into 3D experiences that let people tour restaurants from the inside out. It gives you a feel for the place online without walking into the physical location.

Mok Oh, EveryScape founder, developed the technology that gives people a 360-degree view inside buildings while a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "Local search is about points of interest," he says. "Bing can bring people to the address, but we take them inside."

Marrying the inside content to the outside content required isn't easy. Using Bing's SDK will make it more integrated, similar to an avatar walking through a video game or online virtual world. Oh says to imagine attaching ads or coupons into the immersive imagery. The technology allows people to change the coupons and specials on the fly, but consumers need to adapt to the experience. "But ads without traffic isn't valuable at all," he says.

Developers like EveryScape can download the maps SDK, develop and test it in the maps sandbox, and upload it for approval to Microsoft. It's a technical review process to make sure the developer wrote the code well -- no bugs -- and make sure it doesn't take over the experience. There are several features in Silverlight that would allow that to happen. Google, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest all support their respective API, too.

The team at Bing Maps built the platform in Microsoft Silverlight, which underpins Bing's visual rendering. Microsoft also added a rating feature that lets people rate the app from one to five stars, along with expanded options for the 3D Photosynths, and a feature giving people an easy transition from satellite views to street-side. Right-clicking on the mouse now provides a full set of options to navigate the map. There are plans to integrate search as more apps become available on the site.

Chris Pendleton, the Bing Maps technical evangelist for Microsoft, says the team created an app for a local zoo. The overlay shows people visiting the park how to walk from the monkey exhibit to the giraffes, for example. It provides directions on a mobile phone to get from one attraction to the next. Consumers on the move will have an option to access the apps through their mobile phone. Windows Mobile 7 supports Silverlight.

The idea works for retail stores, too. Retail stores could use the platform by creating a semitransparent overlay of their floor plan. "Since we opened the Map app SDK, retail stores like Target could build out a store locator and drill down into a store to map out the floor plan for the entire store, pointing to specials and sales," he says, suggesting that retail stores could update the sale information instantaneously as specials become available.

Aside from EveryScape, the Bing SDK launched with WeatherBug. The application lets consumers check weather worldwide or select an observation station to see current conditions. Observation stations are pinned to the map and consumers can layer Doppler and satellite weather imagery over the map view. Observation stations include National Weather Service locations, WeatherBug Backyard stations, and WeatherBug stations, which may include current and next-day forecasts, camera images and links to radar imagery.