NBC online will once again be using Silverlight for video streaming of the Olympics. And Bing has a new tool for finding out information about athletes. Nick Eaton highlights these technologies on the Seattle PI's Microsoft Blog.

But other Microsoft technologies -- notably Windows Azure and the Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) framework -- are also being put into service for the Olympics, particularly for spectators, athletes, and personnel who are making the trip to Vancouver, BC, Canada, and the nearby mountains. Here are links and descriptions to six of the apps, which are worth checking out to see the potential of these new Microsoft technologies:

Vancouver Parking – helps plan and find the best parking spot for visiting Vancouver http://www.vanpark2010.ca
MapWay - a way to find City of Vancouver facilities and Olympic events - http://Mapway.cloudapp.net
Free Finders – helps you to find free events and services in Vancouver with Facebook connection - http://Freefinders.cloudapp.net
MoBuddy  – enables you to hookup with friends and visitors during Olympics to plan and share experiences through mobile social networking including Facebook http://Mobuddy.cloudapp.net
eVanTivitY  – enables you to find City and social events and add-in user-defined data-feeds http://Evantivity.cloudapp.net
WeHelp – provides interactive mapping of Vancouver City facilities integrated with Twitter (and this has a mobile iPhone client!) http://bit.ly/nitobiopendata