Ever dreamed to see to whole world, every corner of it, travel to any building, see every detail and all from your desktop? Microsoft is working at a project called Virtual Earth 3D, which is for now addressed only to 15 U.S. cities: San Francisco with San Jose and Calif, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Fort Worth, Detroit, Phoenix, Houston and Baltimore.

The map is like a 3D computer game in which you move around see what you like, see the interior of the buildings, see structures from above if you like and all is 100% reality. Microsoft succeeded this with the help of Vexcel a company that provides photogrammetry, imagery and remote-sensing technology.

Virtual Earth 3D sets itself apart from other similar programs because users don't have to download it to their hard drive. They can run it in the browser and still enjoy the the tour said the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, Greg Sterling.

How do they do it ? They fly a Vexcel camera over the cities which recreates all the buildings automatically and very precise, saving this way money and time needed to draw each building for example by hand. You can choose from a high above view, just like a bird would see or a 3D view among the buildings.

Like all new software it brings new ways to advertise. If the buildings and the streets are real, the billboards are not. The billboards from Virtual Earth 3D change to advertise for Nissan Motor or Zip Realty for example or whatever company pays to have a billboard in the map.