The Interactive Virtual Earth SDK  has been updated to include the latest features and functionality available in Virtual Earth v5.0. The SDK is also available in the MSDN Library.

The new Virtual Earth platform

The Virtual Earth platform is an integrated set of services that combines unique bird’s eye, aerial, and 3-D imagery with best-of-breed mapping, location and search functionality. With ongoing investments in innovation that are driven by customer feedback, the Virtual Earth platform 5.0 continues to offer new tools, advanced feature enhancements, and robust platform capabilities.

Improved Support for Feature Customization

• Virtual Earth Shapes. Easily customize and modify pushpins, polylines, and polygons with the new Virtual Earth Shape class. Customize line colors, widths, and transparencies of shapes, as well as add custom icons.
• Info Boxes. Shapes now have associated info boxes which can be shown and hidden as a response to user actions (e.g. clicking on the shape). The info box text and text style are completely customizable.
• Find Method. More customizable find method integrates the new Shape class to find locations and businesses easier than ever before.
• Keyboard and Mouse Events. Override almost any keyboard or mouse event, and use it to execute any Virtual Earth map action.

Rich End-User Experience

• Bird’s Eye Panning. Pan continuously across the map in bird’s eye view.
• Tile Over-fetching. Programmatically enable tile downloading to either increase panning performance or optimize page load time.
• Small Navigation Controls. New options for end users to customize the interface by utilizing two new options for smaller navigation controls.
• Mini Map. The mini map provides a small map legend, giving the user better bearings as he navigates.
• Compressed Map Control. The map control code base is now compressed, reducing the initial download size to around 25% of the original download.
• Programmatic Market Selection. Localized market support, beginning with Japan, which is now supported in the Virtual Earth API

New Level of Control and Flexibility

• Pushpins, Polylines, and Polygons. Once separately-coded objects, the new Virtual Earth shapes are now richer and easier to customize. Move shapes on the fly, show and hide them programmatically, and give them custom icons using your own image or your own HTML.
• GeoRSS Imports. Import pushpins, polylines, and polygons using the GeoRSS feed, which is becoming the de facto standard.
• Info Boxes. Shapes can now store HTML and CSS content for custom info boxes, which can be shown or hidden programmatically.
• Shape Layers. New and improved shape management capabilities allow grouping of pushpins, polylines, and polygons. Show or hide a group of shapes, or make changes to the individual shapes within them.
• Find Method. Easily customize search results with the updated find method which sends the resulting pushpins directly to a shape layer.
• Tile Layers. The tile layer interface, used for adding, deleting, showing, and hiding tile layers, is now more straightforward and easier to use.

The Virtual Earth SDK  includes a “What’s New” section to get developers started with Version 5 of the platform API. For information on licensing email maplic@microsoft.com.