Why should geeks on the fringe have all the fun?  Microsoft Research has made a big move into the map-mashup space by releasing their own service called MapCruncher  that allows nearly any image to have a Microsoft Virtual Earth map placed over it.   Interesting - why stop at integrating an outside dataset represented only in numbers? Yahoo Maps has had its own API for some time as well, but neither of these two company's offerings seem to be getting the traction that Google Maps has gotten.  Putting some of your own energy into the mix seems like a great way to kick start take-up, especially if you're a giant.   There's a virtual cottage industry of 3rd party services for accessing the Google Maps API - it only makes sense for Microsoft to makes its own equivalent.   

Speaking of mashups, I recently interviewed Taylor McKnight, one of the creators of Podbop, the project voted best at MashupCamp.

Found via John Musser's ProgrammableWeb