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In a new beta that they’ll be releasing tomorrow, Microsoft is making the transition to Silverlight for their online mapping application. In this new beta are quite a few interesting features, which are outlined below:

• High Detail Street Level Images:

Moving into that familiar territory previously rules by Google Maps, Microsoft is trying to gain some ground. With the release tomorrow, Microsoft says they’ll have about 100 U.S. cities mapped out with street-level images taken by the company itself, much like those that Google captures. In addition to that, however, using a combination of geo-tagging and phenomenal algorithms, they’ve incorporated some of the technology we saw when Photosynth was released from Microsoft Live Labs at the end of 2008.

We’ll be able to “walk” through the images captured by users around the world, and essentially have a 3D view of everything in the area from a combination of those users’ photographs.

• Extra Info:

In addition to the images, we’ll be able to access traffic data, weather stats, information about local companies, financial stats, and local news for the city in question. For example, when we’re zoomed into New York, we’ll be able to access the headlines for that day, the current weather condition, and the traffic data for the street we’re viewing.

This is a very innovative way to congregate data from places all around the world.

• Tweets and Facebook:

Microsoft has already set up a partnership with Twitter that will allow Microsoft to analyze the geolocation metadata embedded in tweets with their recently-announced geolocation service. Bing Maps will display relevant Tweets based on importance and the location in question if the user requests them.

Although a deal hasn’t been made yet, Microsoft has plans to set up a deal with Facebook and provide users with yet more data based on geolocation: Facebook photos and status updates. There’s nothing conclusive about this yet, but I’m assuming that when you’re logged into a Facebook-connected Windows Live account, you’ll be able to view relevant status updates and photos from your friends at various locations.

If executed properly, Microsoft could use this tight social network integration, and their powerful image congregation services to gain a huge share of the market. There are some awesome innovations present in this new app – they just need to use them correctly.