Comments on: Rooftop geocoding introduced to Google Maps; Time for a Virtual Earth rematch?

By: William M. Hartnett

William M. Hartnett — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:39:31 +0000

@Andy: As I said in the comment before yours, I don't know much about geocoding accuracy outside the United States. Frankly, it's never come up in my personal or professional workflow. However, for much of the United States, Microsoft's mapping products are as good or better than anything from its competitors. See this older post.

By: Andy Goens MD

Andy Goens MD — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:17:36 +0000

Bill, just tried Virtual Earth to peek on my antenna and Surprise! There was no sign of the city (San Salvador) but even worse, the only road showed was depicted as “Mexico-Acapulco Highway” which is over 1000 miles away, in another country.I am afraid they are not terribly accurate maps
Regards
Andy Goens MD San Salvador, El Salvador

By: William M. Hartnett

William M. Hartnett — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:19:25 +0000

@Brian: No, I don’t know much about geocoding accuracy outside of the United States.

By: Brian Sobel

Brian Sobel — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:31:32 +0000

Any idea of how MSVE compares with international addresses?

By: William M. Hartnett

William M. Hartnett — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:57:53 +0000

@Alex: Like most of the imagery and street data in both companies' mapping products, the geocoding technology appears to usually come from outside providers.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:52:06 +0000

Yes, but where are these rooftops geocodes coming from? It’s not based on a process like address geocoding, it’s based on a database of locations that happen to match the address being searched on. But who provides the data? I do not think it is that Google and MS are actually originated the data…

By: William M. Hartnett

William M. Hartnett — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:08:27 +0000

@Richard: Was just quoting, and linking to, the figure listed on one of the official Virtual Earth blogs in April 2008.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:52:16 +0000

Virtual Earth had rooftop geocoding for 60 million location sin the US last October. They now have over 90 million.

By: foolscap » Map Visualization with WPF and Silverlight

foolscap » Map Visualization with WPF and Silverlight — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:09:33 +0000

[...] Rooftop Geocoding: Virtual Earth & MapPoint; Google Maps; [...]