MapPoint .NET Updated

MapPoint .NET, Microsoft’s Web service that enables developers to add location-awareness to their applications, has been updated with the ability to map geographic coordinates to street addresses, provide detailed business listings, and offer other enhancements. The updated service could prove useful to carriers experimenting with location-based services for cell phone and mobile device users.

Enhancements in Version 3.0

MapPoint .NET 3.0 is the first update to the service since Microsoft made it available to the public in Apr. 2002 (version 1.0 was used by Microsoft only), and it offers the following enhancements:

Reverse geocoding. Geocoding is the ability to determine longitude and latitude from a street address, and it is already used by MapPoint .NET and other geographic information systems. MapPoint .NET 3.0 introduces the opposite functionality: the ability to determine a street address based on a set of geographic coordinates. This is particularly useful for mobile applications. For example, a wireless service provider could use a customer’s cell phone signal to determine her geographic location, then use MapPoint .NET to create an application offering a street-level map with her location at the center. AT&T Wireless and Microsoft have demonstrated a product, tentatively named Enterprise Location Server, that uses MapPoint .NET to offer this type of functionality for internal corporate applications, but the companies have not yet revealed the product’s details, pricing, or release date.