Virtual Earth Gets a .NET Control

Well, almost. It’s a technology preview release. But according to Mark Brown’s Virtual Earth Blog, it’s here, and it’s pretty good. You can now drop a Virtual Earth .NET control right into your .NET project without having to write any JavaScript.*

Mark’s blog has really great details, so please give it a visit. It works just like you think it would - it’s a control in Visual Studio’s toolbox (or Visual Web Developer Express) - drag it and drop it onto your form and wire up the events. I didn’t see a way to add your own custom tiles, but documentation is currently not available on the download page.

If you’re a .NET developer and you want to add Virtual Earth to your app, this wouldn’t be a bad way to go. It’s a technology preview, so I wouldn’t do anything serious with it yet, but it’s a naturally progression for Microsoft.

*.NET will write really horrendous JavaScript for you.