Bing! You’ve got maps.

Microsoft today announced the release of its new search engine, Bing. As part of this, the Virtual Earth mapping platform and the Live Search Maps consumer site for location-based search and mapping that Virtual Earth powers will be rebranded as “Bing maps for Enterprise” and “Bing maps,” respectively.

So what does this mean to customers of the Virtual Earth platform? Good news: not all that much,, actually.

If you are using our Virtual Earth mapping APIs, you will see the Bing watermark on content starting on June 1. This is a logo change only. This update will not introduce change in performance or functionality of your application. The contract for your mapping service does not change in terms or duration. There is no action that you need to take. The API calls will not change. They will still refer to Virtual Earth and MapPoint web services to help make sure that your implementation does not break and you do not need to make changes. The API Terms of Use will be updated to replace Virtual Earth with Bing maps for Enterprise, but there is no other change to the terms.

Having said that, this was not a trivial move by Microsoft. The net result for the Virtual Earth teams is that significant resources must be dedicated to updating references to the Virtual Earth brand, where they exist (web sites, case studies, press releases, etc.) with the new Bing maps brand and engaging in activities to raise awareness of this new brand.

On the plus side, the misaligned branding between Virtual Earth and Live Search Maps that in the past has confused some, may now be resolved. 

Chris Pendleton has posted a video interview with Erik Jorgensen, Corporate VP of MSN in his blog entry on the rebranding. Meanwhile, a new Bing blog has been established and can be found here.

What does this mean to readers of the Virtual Earth for Public Sector blog? The blog itself will be renamed and may move in June. Keep an eye out for a post with details. At that time be sure to opt for RSS feeds to the newly located blog.

Will I now be signing off as “BingJerry”?

Hmm … I think not. And you can continue to follow me on Twitter using @MSvirtualjerry.

But should you need to search for online information about me, you can now Bing me, I suppose.

-=Virtual Jerry