The Manifold Toolbar adds geographic browser capability to Internet Explorer so you can instantly view a map or satellite image of just about any place on Earth directly in IE without having to launch any other applications.  Wow!

Enter a location into the toolbar and it takes you there, filling your browser window with overhead photos or street maps from the server you prefer.

The toolbar works with open source image server modules that allow you to automatically utilize a variety of image servers. Pan and zoom to see almost any place on the planet using satellite imagery or street maps.

In the example we've zoomed into Rome to see the Colosseum.

Installation: Download the Toolbar  Install the toolbar by double-clicking the downloaded file. (The Toolbar uses Microsoft .NET - you need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or more recent on your machine.)  The next time you launch IE turn on the toolbar with IE's View - Toolbars command or the Tools - Toolbars command. (Windows Server 2008 users will have to turn off Internet Explorer Advanced Security Configuration to see the Manifold toolbar choice in the list of available toolbars.) The toolbar visits Microsoft Virtual Earth by default. You can add Manifold image server modules to see content served by other sites.

This is a public beta release for 32-bit IE versions. 64-bit Windows systems allow you to launch IE in either 32-bit or x64 versions. Use the 32-bit IE choice to use the toolbar.

Addresses: Enter a street address in the address box and press Enter or press Go.  Partial addresses (city, state) are usually OK. In most countries outside the US street addresses won't work: you'll usually need to enter a city name and country.  You can use:

• Street addresses in the US, Canada and some European countries.
• City name, Country for most cities in many countries, using English spellings.
• Longitude and Latitude in "xx.xxW yy.yyN" format. "E" and "W" designate East and West longitudes and "N" and "S" designate North and South latitudes.

The toolbar can switch instantly between road view and satellite photo view for almost any location on the planet. It's addictive!

Examples:  Try examples like these.

• 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
• Redmond, Washington
• Paris, France
• Bern, Switzerland
• 31.1313E 29.9756N takes you to the Pyramids in Egypt. 
• 122.1288W 47.6437N takes you to Microsoft in Redmond.

Place Names: Virtual Earth recognizes English place names as well as the English versions of local names.  So you can enter "Munich, Germany" or "Muenchen, Germany" or "The Hague, Netherlands" or "Den Haag, Netherlands".  Both "Moskva, Russia" and "Moscow, Russia" will work, but the former gives you a more zoomed-out view showing the provincial region known as "Moskva" instead of just the capital city of that name.

Multiple Hits: The toolbar will try to show as many "hits" as a location returns.  Entering "Paris" will show pushpins for towns worldwide called "Paris." Entering "Paris, USA" will show pushpins for towns in the US called "Paris."  Virtual Earth recognizes region names, but if you enter "Florida, USA" you'll find that there are many towns in the US called "Florida" which will show up as pushpins instead of showing the state of Florida.  Entering just "Florida" finds the various places around the world called "Florida."

Navigation: Click and drag the view with the mouse.  To zoom in and out, use the scroll wheel on your mouse. Many locations in the world have incredible resolution, where individual people can be seen from space!

Menus: Use the pull-down menus from the manifold.net button to change options, such as which image server is being used.  Virtual Earth is built in. The menu also will list any other image server modules you have installed.

Views: Street map views can be barren in some parts of the world.  Change from street map view to satellite image view by changing the server from "Virtual Earth Street Map Image" to "Virtual Earth Satellite Image."  If you have other image server modules installed you'll have other image servers to choose from.  Different image servers can give better resolution in some areas.

Push Pin: A push pin marks the address or location specified.  Hover the mouse over it to see an information readout.  Hold the CTRL key down and double-click on the push pin to get rid of it.  To get it back, repeat the search.

See real estate and famous addresses, like the Malibu home at right!

Proxy Servers:  The toolbar automatically detects proxy settings when Virtual Earth modules are used.  If your Internet connection uses a proxy server and you are working with image server modules other than Virtual Earth, take a moment to configure proxy settings in the toolbar's Options dialog.

Cache: The toolbar fetches image tiles to form the desired view.  It automatically fetches higher or lower resolution tiles as needed.  Tiles are saved in a cache folder on disk so that once fetched a particular view will display faster, even if the Internet connection is lost.  You can choose the cache folder in the Options dialog.  If you have Manifold System installed, the toolbar will automatically use the same cache folder so that downloaded tiles can be shared by either application.  To save space on disk, delete some of the files in the cache folder every now and then (most people can run for years without worries about disk space used for cache).  Cache is good - it makes your frequently-visited places appear much faster.

Red X and Missing Tiles:  Not all image servers cover all parts of the Earth.  Virtual Earth does a good job but in some parts of the world won't zoom in beyond a certain level, so you'll get blank tiles. If you get blank tiles from one image server, try a different image server. Tiles with a red X mean that image could not be fetched from the image server.  This could mean an interruption in Internet service, a server that's too busy or no images available at that resolution for that place from that server.  Sometimes servers are slow.  Be patient as it may take some time when zooming in for higher resolution tiles to come into view.

Third parties publish Manifold image server modules that allow use of other image servers in addition to Microsoft Virtual Earth.  Any image server module that conforms to the Manifold Image Server interface will work.

To install a new image server module, place the DLL file for the module in the installation folder for the toolbar, which is C:\Program Files\Manifold Toolbar by default. The next time you launch IE, the toolbar will have the new image servers available.

Example 1: Download the OpenStreetsMap image server module contributed by jkelly to the Manifold forum. Place that .dll in your C:\Program Files\Manifold Toolbar folder. Now, when you launch IE you'll have an options to use the MapNik, Osmarenderer and cloudmade renderings of the OpenStreetsMap.org open source street map collection. Streets rendered using the MapNik module are shown at right.

Example 2: Download the "hybrid" Virtual Earth image server module contributed by csb to the Manifold forum. Place that .dll in your C:\Program Files\Manifold Toolbar folder. Now, when you launch IE you'll have an option to use the a hybrid Virtual Earth presentation showing a satellite image background with labels and partially transparent roads, as well as the usual street map and satellite image Virtual Earth presentations. Excellent! A hybrid view is seen at lower right, showing the White House in Washington, DC.

Third parties have published open source image server modules for Google Maps servers, Yahoo! Maps servers and other image servers. You can find these by searching on the web.   A popular collection is here. Note: If you will be using the hybrid Virtual Earth image server module from Example 2 above, install that after this popular collection, as the hybrid image server module replaces the original Virtual Earth module in that collection. If you have downloaded the toolbar from some page other than this page, it's likely the same page you downloaded the toolbar from will have a choice of additional image server module packages as well.  Modules exist for a wide variety of public and private image server sites and technologies.  Some may require payment or agreement to a serving company's terms and conditions, but most are free. 

Tech tip: Not all image server modules allow instant switching from one module to another just by changing modules. With most you have to press Go again. If you've installed third party modules like the examples above, to switch between them choose the desired module and then press the Go button one more time.

A geocoding server takes the address entered into the toolbar and reports the latitude and longitude for that address.  Some geocoding servers work better than others.

The toolbar uses the Microsoft Virtual Earth geocoding service by default because Virtual Earth geocoding is fast and very cool. Other geocoding servers can be installed, just like installing an image server module.  Any geocoding server module that conforms to the Manifold Geocoding Server interface will work. 

Programmers interested in writing their own image server modules or their own geocoding server modules should read the interface specifications cited above and study the source code for existing third party image server modules, many of which have been published as open source projects. If you have the technical skills to work with open source projects, you know how to find them.

The toolbar will let you know when a new update is available.  Download the new version of the toolbar. Uninstall the toolbar using the Windows Control Panel's Add / Remove Programs applet and then install the new version.  The current toolbar download is manifold-toolbar-0.9.6.msi which adds support for Vista x64, fixes a few bugs and works a bit faster.

This product is not supported by manifold.net.  Hey! It's free!

The toolbar is free for any lawful use.  You can make and use as many copies as you like, give it away, sell it, package it with other programs, make it available for download ... the works!  Just preserve our links and copyright, retain our logo and don't hassle us about support or warranties (there are none).  See the license for details.  You can re-publish this page on your web site if you retain our links.  Enjoy!

At right: The entire US seen in the hybrid Virtual Earth image server module.

manifold.net manufactures the world's coolest Geographic Information System (GIS) product, Manifold System. A GIS product is like a super-powerful mapping system that's connected to a database as well.  Visit the Manifold Home Page to learn all about our GIS products.  We created the Manifold Toolbar for Internet Explorer to show off the Manifold Image Server interface, which is often used within Manifold System to provide background maps or imagery in mapping projects. 

If you are into mapping and want an easy-to-use program that can create base maps of the United States or Europe and show things like customer locations or other simple business data, we recommend Microsoft's MapPoint product. It's easy to learn and works great.  If you need more sophisticated capabilities, such as modifying maps or creating your own maps or linking them in sophisticated ways to data, then step up to Manifold System. 

It only takes a couple of days of study for the average Windows power user to learn Manifold, yet the package is so powerful that it is the first choice for GIS professionals and enterprise users as well.  If your organization has been spending too much money on old fashioned GIS packages, take a look at Manifold as your path to modern GIS.

Microsoft pioneered geographic imagery web content with TerraServer and Virtual Earth is the latest and greatest geographic web resource.  Microsoft has supported use of alternative browsers, even going so far as to document how to use the totally open source NASA "World Wind" browser (an alternative open source browser that looks a lot like Google Earth) to browse Microsoft Virtual Earth sites. Very cool!

At right: Wizard Island in the center of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon as seen in Virtual Earth.

manifold.net recommends use of Microsoft Virtual Earth (the default installation) instead of Google servers for several reasons:

• Virtual Earth has a more even appearance in large scales.
• Virtual Earth does not interrupt service to active users, as Google has been said to do.
• Virtual Earth does not "watermark" images with a disfiguring logo as Google does.
• Virtual Earth has better resolution in many (but not all) locations.
• Microsoft has supported developers working on alternatives to Microsoft's own geographic browsers.

This public beta has obvious limits.  It would be nice to zoom in/out if you don't have a wheel mouse.  That will be added.  Manifold System users know that some image server modules allow specification of various options, such as local URLs for image servers.  These will get added to the toolbar as well. Sooner or later we'll do a 64-bit version of the toolbar (Manifold System is already 64-bit).  After some experience with IE no doubt there will be versions for other browsers as well.

At right: Sydney Harbor, with the famous Opera House as seen in a hybrid view using Virtual Earth. Go anywhere on the planet!

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