MetaCarta, Inc., the leading provider of geographic search solutions, today announced that it has partnered with Microsoft to provide the MetaCarta Geographic Search and Referencing Platform to deliver map-based local news within the Microsoft Vine service. Microsoft Vine connects individuals to the people and places they care about most, when it matters. It helps people stay in touch with family and friends and enables them to send alerts when someone needs help. With the Microsoft Vine personal dashboard, people can get involved by creating groups, then sending them alerts and reports to stay in touch, informed and involved.

"Microsoft and MetaCarta have a shared interest in delivering information to consumers that is local, reliable and actionable,” said Tammy Savage, General Manager, Public Safety, Startup Business Accelerator Group, Microsoft Corporation. “To this end, we are pleased to apply MetaCarta’s advanced geo-referencing platform to the Microsoft Vine service, which in turn will offer people personalized news and other relevant content at their fingertips - a compelling combination for consumers eager for local content.”

MetaCarta’s platform automatically geo-references textual data from all sources. The platform includes the GeoSearch News Collection, which provides more than 200,000 articles per day of international and hyperlocal news.

The Microsoft Vine beta will be available for a limited number of people to download at no cost, beginning early May 2009. For more information or to request an invitation, visit www.vine.net.

About MetaCarta
MetaCarta is the leading provider of geographic search and referencing solutions. MetaCarta products make data and unstructured content “location-aware” so that information becomes geographically relevant. Accessed through any mapping tool, these innovative solutions make it possible for people to discover, visualize, and act on important information. MetaCarta customers include government entities, oil & gas companies, and media organizations. Founded by a team of MIT researchers in 2001, MetaCarta is privately held, with US headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts and offices in Vienna, Virginia; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas and resellers worldwide. For more information, please visit www.metacarta.com or MetaCarta Resource Center.
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MetaCarta is a trademark of MetaCarta, Incorporated. All other product or corporate references may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.