Microsoft is today announcing the integration of Photosynth, technology that enables you to automatically stitch groups of photos together into one big interactive 3D viewing experience, with its mapping service Virtual Earth. I think that’s really cool, because I’m a big fan of Photosynth and I also happen to think Virtual Earth is vastly superior to – yet immensely less popular than – Google Maps / Earth.
In the video it’s releasing on YouTube for the occasion (embedded below), Microsoft claims ‘hundreds of thousands’ of users have already used Photosynth – which was released to the public back in August 2008 – and uploaded more than 12 million photos in 350,000 synths.
Now it’s taking the next step by using Silverlight technology in order to make it possible for user to port their Photosynths to Virtual Earth, running on Macs and PCs alike (unless you refuse to run Silverlight on any of those, of course). It touts this as a must for tourism agencies (for obvious reasons) but also businesses who want to add a cool visual layer of their stores, outlets and offices. The example it is featuring on the Virtual Earth product site is for a real estate listing, and the result of the synth is stunning as ever.
In addition to the integration, Microsoft announced that the latest release of Photosynth introduces commercial licensing, privacy controls, and one-click highlighting for viewers to easily explore synths.
It’s also worth noting that this integration announcement comes several months after Microsoft started including hyperlinks to hosted photosynths on its Live Maps web application.
I can really see how many tourism agencies and businesses from around the world can benefit from showing off whatever they can show off on a digital version of our planet, but I also see the challenges ahead for Microsoft. After all, the company is going to have to convince not only those organizations but also potential visitors to install and use both Virtual Earth and Silverlight on their computers, and getting the word out that something like Photosynth even exists. So far, these are all examples of services that haven’t exactly seen stellar success and seem to be far away from even edging into mainstream popularity.
Either way, I think the combination is powerful and enticing. What do you think?
Microsoft are doing BIG things these days.
Indeed, Microsoft is innovating, I hope these innovations will reach the mainstream.
Microsoft has always been great, very innovative.
I really like Photosynth after testing it out months ago, i think its great and now even better that its integrated with virtual earth…
I like!
me like too!
I will try to use this for some pizza reviews on http://www.worstpizza.com and see how it comes out! This should be cool
“It’s also worth nothing” should be NOTING, big difference.
These services are great, but they somehow need to become more mainstream, as Robin points out.
huge difference, thanks and fixed
It’s not going to be popular until someone creates a vastly inferior knockoff under the Apple/Google label and charges hundreds for it.
lol… that’s funny… sad part it could happen.
Because you won’t let the 360 camera trucks drive on your lawn… This is quite a cool.
Very interesting…
Microsoft develops content in Flash and has a team who rebuild it I
Very Interesting.
1.This was a obvious step after the success of a mashup that showed just that. it had Virtual Earth with the previously beta silverlight photosynth player. there is also a mashup of deepzoom and virtual earth called deepearth worth mentioning among others.
The rumor is that Virtual Earth itself will go full silverlight at PDC09 as way to showcase Silverlight 3 in its RTW launch and it will include DeepZoom, Deeplinking, Hyperlinking, Highlighting, Annotation and Photosynth support out of the box. would not be surprised that it would include 3D support as well. if it don’t shows at PDC09, maybe then for next year MIX or even sooner if someone takes several current Virtual Earth mashups and combine them into one with the next beta of Silverlight 3.
First off, MSFT did not “innovate” Photosynth. They bought the technology by acquiring a company called Seadragon IIRC.
Interestingly, Seadragon, located in downtown Seattle, would not move to the Eastside (Redmond) so that they could stay out of the Borg. Good on them, and I think it shows.
Also, all that blather about “first time you can”… add 360, zoomable views inside models is also not innovative. Many companies attempted this earlier, but I think the architecture/tech just was not there. IOW, not a new idea.
So, finally, kudos to MSFT/Seadragon for packaging all this up in what looks to be a winner, and a novel new resource (because earlier attempts did not work too well).
I can see this taking off both commercially, and also in a very Flickr sort of way.
Silverlight is MSFT ***MOST IMPORTANT*** technology right now. Ballmer at some point must come out and commit MSFT to 100% cross-platform, unchanging cross-platform for SL.
They’ll never do this, because the minds in the Borg still think they have to promote the natural monopoly Windows provides above all else. But, maybe things will change.
Flex/Air is still cool enough for me, and with SL ramping up, Adobe has the fear of God in them, so no more years of poor investment (well much of that was MM, but nice anyway). [Note how that "really cool" new Stupeflix tech Mike A. just raved about is flex.] Competition is good.
You mean like the Photo integration that launched in Street View in February?
http://google-l...-in-street.html
i think a company named Quiksee are doing similar things…check them out http://www.quiksee.com
Why do I need yet another proprietary product from Microsoft, likely a plugin this time, when my browser already has enough plugins for Microsoft to adapt to?
do you have flash installed?
how about a plugin for acrobat documents?
how about google gears?
maybe java?
what about quicktime?
what about x?
the problem is getting company-y’s to use company-x’s product is like getting company-x to use company-y’s product. Replace X or Y for apple,google,microsoft,adobe,etc, etc, etc.
It just isn’t going to happen.
I think the question you should be asking is why do i need proprietry plugins from any company, not just microsoft. a standards complient browser, that supports a new set of exstensible webapp standards (adobe air, silverlight, et al) should be all you need.
Sure, and you express the situation well in your first paragraph but you seem to have expressed a confusing set of circumstances in your second.
“Adobe air, silverlight” are proprietary already, so why do you promote proprietaries in one breath and and advocate the promotion of open, non-proprietary standards in the other. The answer can only be that you are either a troll for proprietaries, want to introduce doubt to the benefit of the proprietary company in which you may have philosophical, religious, or financial interest, or are confused. Which is it? It could be all three.
Also, I hope that you are not implying that Explorer complies to accepted standards as issued by the respected standards compliance committee.
now this is really cool stuff!
I am continually fascinated by the things that Microsoft puts out. From products like Surface to Photosynth, it is truly an innovative company.
But, I am also continually fascinated by how much more press/traction Google and Apple get compared to Microsoft (not that the iPhone or google search aren’t 10x better than the MSFT alternative).
I think the video above finally gave me some insight into the answer. Apple and Google put out “product introduction” videos that are simple, easy to understand, and demonstrate the use of the product. Microsoft’s videos (at least the one above) are clunky, verbose (much like this post, but I’m speaking to a different audience) and do not excite people.
Obviously, product introduction videos do not alone constitute a marketing plan, but perhaps the video above is indicative of the reasons why Microsoft has so much more trouble marketing its products than Apple or Google?
i think look at the products, and markets you’re comparing here.
ipod + google search = every day products for every day people.
enterprise / partner licensing of photosynth and virtual earth integration = corporate products for corporate people.
how long before we can realistically expect to see photosynth 3d point, and textural data being projected on to virtual earth..
or rather, think about a global photosynth, overlayed on to live maps and virtual earth. The holy grail?
I’ve seen that microsoft already have technologies in the pipeline to take street level imagery, and remove cars, people and foliage (by comparing multiple images), and then composite this in to a rich 3d environment.. it seems just like the dots need connecting.
Is this for real? No one’s bashing Microsoft just for being Microsoft?
Where are Apple Fanboys? Where´s Jeremy Wa (the guy who´s Cheerios Steve Ballmer pissed on)?
It feels strange, yet pretty cool
photosynth is cool but even more impressive were those life-like robots in the video… I thought this was Short Circuit for a second
I am deeply wounded by your critique of my presentation skills. I share with you these shots of the environment where I honed by talent: http://bit.ly/Pvk9X