Slashgeo

Several blogs linked to Microsoft's MapCruncher, a product in development. From Microsoft's website: "MapCruncher brings mashups to a whole new level by allowing developers to import entire maps to supplement the existing road and aerial imagery with detailed, application-specific information. The possibilities are endless: bicycle maps, transit maps, national park maps, university maps, antique city maps, or whatever drawn-to-scale maps you personally find interesting." Many screenshots and a gallery provided. Here's the "Information for journalist" article from Microsoft (via VerySpatial).

Spatially Adjusted tells us Microsoft MapCruncher 3.0 has been released. From the version history: "# Far more robust -- major internal restructuring of the code makes things much more reliable # Integrated with v4.0 MapControl API -- including support for the new 3D Virtual Earth! # Transparency! Select background colors to be removed, or foreground colors to be kept, to allow maps to be better overlaid without losing underlying data # "Auto legends" -- trace out the legend that appears on your map, and MC generates a web page so the legend pops up automatically when that source map is in the user's view [...]"

An important Microsoft announcement, Virtual Earth 3D has launched. From the official press release: "When people visit Live Search, type a query into the search box and click the “Maps” tab, they get their search results in a map context that offers the option to explore the area using two-dimensional views (aerial and bird’s-eye) or three dimensional models with Virtual Earth 3D. This new technology compiles photographic images of cities and terrain to generate textured, photorealistic 3-D models with engineering level accuracy." See also numerous screenshots and a Google Earth comparison from Spatially Adjusted. Read the Google Earth Blog on why he thinks it's not a treat to Google. Here's the CNET article and Microsoft's official press release (via The Map Room). Read more here from the development side or see the CBS reportage on Virtual Earth 3D. My main gripe: Windows and Internet Explorer 6/7 only. Update: 11/07 18:05 GMT by S :Read more comments on Slashdot.

Last week Microsoft announced MapCruncher Beta for Virtual Earth. MapCruncher 3.0 was released almost a year ago. The official description: "MapCruncher Beta for Microsoft Virtual Earth makes it easy to publish maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control. Once you are familiar with the tool, it will take you about ten minutes to generate a new tile layer. Just find 5 to 10 corresponding landmarks on your map and on the Virtual Earth map view, and MapCruncher will register your map to the global coordinate system, warp it to fit a Mercator projection, and generate a set of image tiles that can be seamlessly layered on top of Virtual Earth map control's standard road, hybrid, or aerial imagery. It even makes a sample HTML page for reference. MapCruncher accepts a variety of vector formats (PDF, WMF, EMF) and raster formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP)." See also related stories below.

Spatial Sustain has a short but interesting entry on the return on investment for geological mapping in Canada: "“For every dollar we invest in geoscience, it attracts five dollars from the private sector in exploration, and over C$125 that are discovered in mineral resources. So I think it is a very, very good investment,” said Lunn."

A few days after the story on the ROI of geological mapping, Directions Mag published an article on geological exploration and GIS. From the article: "On a broader scale, trends in mineral exploration show there's a need for better integration of GIS and geosciences. Most ore deposits with a surface expression have already been found, so 3D information from the subsurface - particularly geophysical data - is becoming the main pathfinder to discoveries." Related stories below.