Virtual Earth 3D is dead, well, at least the brand is. Fact is that it was just a matter of time before Virtual Earth 3D followed in the footsteps of the Virtual Earth platform. With the advent of Bing, only properties, services and even platforms formerly associated with the now-defunct Live Search have been slowly transitioning under the new brand umbrella. It was the case for both Live Search Maps and Virtual Earth, and now Virtual Earth 3D.

Bing Maps 3D is now offered for download to users looking for the old Virtual Earth 3D. As Bing was rolling out, Live Search Maps became Bing Maps, and Virtual Earth was rebranded as Bing Maps for Enterprise. The last fully fledged release of Virtual Earth 3D happened back in April 2009. At that time Microsoft offered for download the Beta build of Virtual Earth 3D 4.0. Now Bing Maps 3d is in its place.

Microsoft failed to indicate whether the new Bing Maps 3D was nothing more than a simple rebranding of Virtual Earth, or if the release offered on June 2nd was the final version. One thing is clear – on its Download Center, in the move from Virtual Earth 3D Beta to Bing Maps 3D, Microsoft has managed to lose the Beta label. But, of course, there's more to it than just Bing Maps 3D.

“Microsoft Virtual Earth is now officially known as “Bing Maps for Enterprise”. You can see the Bing logo Bing Maps website (formerly known as Live Search Maps) and on the Bing Maps interactive SDK. You can see the SDKs for the Bing Maps Web Services and the Bing Map Control 6.2. The Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP will remain “Virtual Earth” for now since it is a CTP, but will be part of the Bing Maps platform when the next release is available,” revealed Keith Kinnan, a software development lead on the Bing Maps for Enterprise platform team for Microsoft.

Bing Maps 3D is available for download here.