With opening ceremonies of 2010 Winter Olympic Games scheduled for Friday, Microsoft Silverlight, MSN and Bing teams have worked with NBCOlympics.com to deliver Games to online audience. Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform Web plug-in, and Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming technology, will power interactive online player. “For the first time for an Olympic Winter Games, NBC Universal will offer digital event coverage that’ll include more than 400 hours of live competition and more than 1,000 hours of full-event replays on NBCOlympics.com,” NBC says. Bing will be a great place to get quickly to the important Olympics details. Just search Winter Olympics on Bing for important dates, links to the schedule, breaking news, all brought to you conveniently in the form of an Instant Answer. Bing lets users experience and explore Vancouver and Whistler through Streetside imagery in Bing Maps. In addition, Microsoft Canada Development Centre (MCDC) in Richmond, developed some helpful Vancouver apps:

• MapWay is a way to find City of Vancouver facilities and Olympic events
• Free Finders helps to find free events and services in Vancouver with Facebook connection
• MoBuddy enables to hookup with friends and visitors during Olympics to plan and share experiences through mobile social networking including Facebook
• eVanTivitY enables to find City and social events and add-in user-defined data-feeds
• Vancouver Parking helps plan and find best parking spot for visiting Vancouver