Thursday, December 11, 2008

Redfin Abandons Microsoft Virtual Earth, Switches To Google Maps

Seattle-based online real estate site Redfin said today that the firm has dropped Microsoft Virtual Earth, and is now exclusively using Google Maps. The firm explained that the move came because its two-year contract with Microsoft was up for renewal, and that it decided on Google due to an evaluation of speed of drawing pushpins on the firm's real estate maps. In explaining the move in a blog post, Redfin said that it liked the Google Maps solution better due to fast downloads, fast drawing speeds, browser support, and the firm's use of Geoeye-1 satellite images. Redfin previously used a mix of both Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google. The firm said it took 3 developers four weeks to make the change.