Virtual Earth/Live Maps doesn't have the user base that Google Maps does, but it is continually advancing the platform, adding terabytes of data, and signing up new customers. Today, for example, Virtual Earth signed up two significant new customers, Yellowbook.com (moving from Mapquest), and Windemere Real Estate (from ESRI and Google mapping).
According to comScore via Search Engine Watch, Yellowbook.com is doing well lately:
Yellow Book Network jumped 137 percent to 10.4 million visitors. Visits to Yellowbook.com network sites tripled (up 207 percent to 4.6 million visitors) with the acquisition of a new property.
(Update: Just got this note from Steve Lombardi from Virtual Earth/Live Maps):
Hi Kip β it is worth noting that in addition to Yellow book, superpages.com and Yellowpages.com are already using Virtual Earth
http://yellowpages.superpages.com/mapbasedsearch/mapsearch.jsp?spdd=true&L=Seattle+WA
http://www.yellowpages.com/info-LMS67823627/Boylston-Hotel/maps
So 3 of the top 4 Yellow Page/Local Search companies are using our platform already for maps, directions and address lookups. (Nice Steve - what's next, Dex?)
In addition, Microsoft Technology Specialist James Senior was off to show off some Virtual Earth Goodness at the Virtual Earth Partner Day in Sonning, England, and from the looks of it he better be a fast talker - in 25 minutes today, James planned to demo and talk about : Photosynth, Birds Eye in 3D, Popfly, Redfin, 3D Modelling, Super Bowl coverage, MapCruncher, SportsDo, XBox 360, Tesco, Live Quick Apps, Sharepoint web parts now on codeplex, and the Windows Live Dev Poster. Hope it went well, James! (Links on his site, I'm tired just typing this!)