Microsoft is offering for free download a toolkit that lets you build applications that call MapPoint .NET Developer Web Services 3.0, a location-based Web service. The Web service includes a SOAP API that lets you add location-based functionality to an application, such as maps, location finding, and routing. You can upload location data and custom icons to MapPoint .NET servers using the MapPoint .NET Customer Services site, a secure site on the Microsoft extranet.

The MapPoint .NET software development kit (SDK) includes documentation that describes the basic services, requirements, development guidelines, object model, and reference information for MapPoint .NET. The SDK also installs sample code that shows you common uses of MapPoint .NET.

Version 3.0 of the Web service includes several updates:

• 33 new data sources that contain 16 million business listings in the United States.
• Updated base maps and increased address coverage, as well as enhanced routing, including routing between multiple locations and improved directions and construction data.
• You can now get contextual information from a location, such as the country, region, or state of the location and what addresses are nearby (FindServiceSoap.GetLocationInfo method).
• You can get a URL to a cached map on the MapPoint .NET servers, which lets your application users get the map directly from MapPoint .NET and lets you avoid caching maps on your servers.
• An improved interface on the Customer Services site that lets you geocode your data (get latitude and longitude coordinates), upload your location data and icons to MapPoint .NET servers, and manage your icons.

• 13 sample applications, including a mobile application, turn-by-turn route maps application, and complete store-locator application. These applications are installed on your computer as Microsoft Visual Studio .NET project files, available in both Visual Basic .NET and Visual C#.
• Example code for every property, method, and enumeration in the API, provided in Visual Basic .NET and Visual C#.
• Overview topics describing how data sources are used in MapPoint .NET and how to use MapPoint .NET in a Web application.