As I am excited in the new Map control for VS 2008, I immediately created a sample ASP.NET 3.5 application.

How did I do it? well.. 

Fire VS 2008. Select File -> New Website -> ASP.NET Windows Live Web Site

From the toolbox's Virtual Earth Tab, drag the Map control into page Default.aspx. Run the application. 

As easy as that I already have my website embedded with Virtual Earth. 

I then added a simple Shape called Pushpin by adding the code below in the Page Load event of the Default.aspx. 

        var latlong = new LatLongWithAltitude(34.0540, -118.2370);
        var s = new Shape(ShapeType.Pushpin, latlong);
        s.Title = "First hand in ASP.NET Live Controls";
        Map1.AddShape(s);
 

Run the application.

Today, I downloaded the July 2008 CTP of Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio 2008.

Windows Live™ Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 are a set of control add-ins to make incorporating Windows Live services into your Web application easier with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express 2008.

 There are 6 controls that were included in the CTP release:

• Contacts Control
• IDLoginStatus Control
• IDLoginView Control 
• MessengerChat Control 
• SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer Control
• Map Control 

Among these controls, what I am excited to experiment with is the Map Control. I'm interested in developing application that uses maps, e.i. Google Maps, Yahoo Maps but I hate javascript so my plan didn't materialize. Thanks to this controls release for ASP.NET I can now start experimenting with these.  

Find the full details of the CTP and Windows Live Tools here.