Microsoft MapPoint Web Service
The Microsoft MapPoint Web Service is a programmable web service hosted by Microsoft. It is accessed using SOAP requests. Capabilities include map creation, driving directions, and proximity searches. The Web Service includes a database of more than 15 million points of interest, and customers can upload their own datasets. There's a lot of functionality, and it is ideal for both mobile and web applications. Coverage includes North America, South America, and Europe. Microsoft claim an uptime that exceeds 99.9 percent.
In contrast to the desktop products, the Web Service is purchased on a subscription basis. There is a free 45 day trial available for developers, and the MSDN Universal subscription comes with a free one year trial.
Both the MapPoint Web Service and the Virtual Earth Web Service have been recently rebranded as Bing Maps for Enterprise. Over time, Virtual Earth Web Service is expected to supercede MapPoint Web Service. Therefore the Virtual Earth Web Service should be seriously considered for all new development, even though it does not yet support all of the MapPoint Web Service functionality.
Further Information
- Our sister site, The GeoWeb Guru is a new community site for geospatial web development, including the MapPoint Web Service.
- Microsoft maintain their own MapPoint Web Service information pages as a part of MSDN.
- Published in January 2006, Chandu Thota's Programming MapPoint in .NET book is the only book covering Microsoft MapPoint Web Service programming. This book is strongly recommended, and also includes chapters on the desktop version of MapPoint.
