An 'arms race' in online

An 'arms race' in online mapping Real estate brokerage company Redfin, a pioneer in real estate mapping, has dumped its self-built mapping platform in favor of the Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping platform, the company announced today. The company also announced an expansion of services to more counties in California and Washington. At its blog, Redfin officials said there is a sort of "arms race" in the online mapping space "and it was clear that we don't want to compete with Google and Microsoft in the map platform arena. We had to exit the map technology business and switch to a Web mapping platform that met our needs." Redfin's mapping component has been central to the site, and the in-house mapping platform launched even before the company announced it was entering the real estate brokerage business. The company evaluated the Google and Microsoft mapping platforms for its decision and provides detailed insight in the blog post about the pros and cons of each. Redfin and Microsoft are both based in Washington. –Glenn Roberts Jr., Inman News

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