Microsoft and IGN agree Virtual Earth imagery deal

16 April 2008

Institut Géographique National (IGN), a French leader in cartography and aerial imagery, has signed a five-year partnership with Microsoft at Geo-événement 2008, a trade show for geo-information specialists in France. The partnership allows Microsoft to license IGN’s aerial imagery of France and make it available on the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform and through Microsoft Live Search Maps.

“Our collaboration with IGN will help us bring a new level of realism to Virtual Earth in France,” said Arnaud Gstach, Microsoft Virtual Earth’s business development manager in Southern Europe. “Consumers, businesses and government bodies will be able to access quality aerial imagery across the whole of France. This will give users an immersive experience of their neighbourhood or holiday destination, or provide businesses and government bodies with a mapping service for real-estate viewing, town planning, vehicle tracking and store locations.”

Currently, Microsoft Virtual Earth has high-resolution aerial imagery for nine major French cities and bird’s-eye imagery (45-degree angle) for 43 towns and cities in France. The BD Ortho aerial imagery, available in May 2008, will build on the existing Virtual Earth platform by expanding aerial imagery to the entire French territory and allowing users to zoom and pan at a higher resolution than before.

In addition, aerial imagery of the entire French coastline will be available on the Virtual Earth platform at an even higher resolution than the inland imagery. This is significant given that France was the world’s number one tourist destination, with 78 million foreign tourists in 2006. The imagery will be available to organisations such as those in the tourism sector, and also to prospective tourists, allowing them to virtually explore the French coastline, architecture and amenities before visiting.