That's the message coming out of yesterday's annual company meeting at Microsoft. Several Microsoft employees tweeted that Microsoft's improvements to Bing maps is "exciting" with one going as far as to claim "BING 2.0 terrific !! watch out guys ! bing + silverlight in maps = amazing !! goodbye google".One Microsoft tweet-aholic claims that the company is set to release the update next week whilst others claim it will be ready at some stage in September. According to Mary Jo Foley, who spotted the twitter updates, company officials would neither confirm or deny the reports, claiming "we're very excited about some of the new Bing features set to roll out over the next few months, but have nothing to announce today". Mini-microsoft, an anonymous insider, confirmed the Bing 2.0 demo, claiming it was "map goodness"
Microsoft used the annual company meeting as a place to rally the troops and provide product demos to nearly 20,000 Microsoft staff members. Company officials also unveiled the first Windows 7 commercial at the event yesterday in downtown Seattle.
















I see you've never tried Silverlight.
If it's any consolation to you, I tried it. It wasn't very impressive. I didn't see anything that couldn't be done with Flash and/or AJAX and/or OpenGL--which are all cross-platform BTW. You should remember that this now includes all the mobile devices out there. Great marketing idea by MS to shut out all those non-Windows users from Bing!
~Johnny pointed us to this thing below: http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
And its smoother in the web browser than Google Earth, what to speak of google maps. You need IE, or Firefox, and Silverlight.
~Johnny pointed us to this thing below: http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
And its smoother in the web browser than Google Earth, what to speak of google maps. You need IE, or Firefox, and Silverlight.
I develop for both architecture silverlight and macromedia flash (flex ) and in my test i found that the so called gpu accelerated is just a buzz term rather a real feature. May be for videos, silverlight (2 and 3) is accelerate but for the rest is a bit slow and big.
I'll try to put this diplomatically. I find it difficult to believe that you've tried it if you didn't immediately see major differences that distinguish this RIA technology from everything else that is currently available.
E.g. The first thing you'll notice (in the first millisecond) is that Silverlight has a proper IDE and has real programming languages. The software tools for Flash are a very long way from a proper IDE.
E.g. Try dynamically generating and an entire Flash app from scratch at runtime using pure JavaScript. It's impossible, but easy with Silverlight, offering an entirely new and infinitely flexible way of delivering web features. Flash ultimately ties you down to what's in the SWF, it's an old technology.
E.g. You can create Silverlight apps with no proprietary tools whatsoever if you want to. Flash does its best to tie you down to proprietary development tools and closed, inflexible proprietary formats like SWF.
I'm with Glendi, obviously you have no clue what you are talking about hehe
You sound like a 55 year old lady taking a brand new car at the garage for a 10 min ride and then claiming after bringing it back to know all about the car.
Neowin had a comparison of Flash and Silverlight a while back, and Silverlight won in most categories... It's much better thought out and designed than Flash. Not only that, but it allows you to do things that Flash can't. It's very nice... I'm sure Microsoft will have a Lite version available for the few instances where Silverlight wouldnt' be supported...
How do you know what they're planning?
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
Google works with every browser, it's simple and easy to use. Its search engine is the best, fast, doesn't load heavy images to increase traffic, doesn't even compare to others.
Microsoft's search engine will fail once more.
Google works with every browser, it's simple and easy to use. Its search engine is the best, fast, doesn't load heavy images to increase traffic, doesn't even compare to others.
Microsoft's search engine will fail once more.
Silverlight DOES work with Opera, I'm using it right now with absolutely no hackery involved o.O Granted not everyone is going to have access to Silverlight, but those who do will probably find a much better experience, and frankly a lot of people already find the current Bing upto par, or even better than google. And it works with every browser too.
Doesn't work here. Running Opera on Debian Linux. How did you you make it work with Opera, may I ask?
Maybe Linux is the problem, not Opera.
Working perfectly fine here on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate RC.
Maybe Linux is the problem, not Opera.
Working perfectly fine here on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate RC.
Doesn't work on Opera + Linux currently. It's not a Linux problem, "Linux" isn't responsible for a proprietary software developed by Microsoft.
http://go-mono.com/moonlight-beta/
It's an open source product funded by and supported by Microsoft...
It's an open source product funded by and supported by Microsoft...
The Microsoft Media Pack is a product distributed by Microsoft that includes a license to the various media codecs for video and audio and is available from Microsoft's web site for Moonlight to consume.
Users of Moonlight interested in using this on embedded systems should contact the Mono at Novell team to obtain a commercial license. See our Licensing page for details.
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
AMAZING
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
The map coverage plays a much greater role for me. Bing Maps international map coverage sucks compared to Google's from my experience. Who cares about the smooth zooms if you can't locate various spots in the world?
Last edited by Jugalator on 11 Sep 2009 - 14:54
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
AMAZING
So they cloned Google Earth....oh boy....
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
I'm not sure whet browser you're using or what your hardware specs are but over here (C2D E8400/Chrome/Win7 x64) that Silverlight map doesn't run any smoother than Google maps and it takes noticeably longer to redraw the area after I zoom.
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
AMAZING
And google bought out a company called Keyhole, that actually designed google earth.
Big deal
So they cloned Google Earth....oh boy....
A) This doesn't specifically have to do with 'maps'
B) Bing/Live maps is the original satellite map image software on the Internet coming from the terra server and virtual earth projects started by Microsoft to test their SQL database software with large amounts of data as a proof of concept. Google is a copy of Microsoft's work and about 5 years after terraserver.
C) You are correct, people use what mapping software they are familar with, and you will find that Google employees even complain that their friends and family use mapquest or expedia/live/bing because people use what they are use to cause they don't know the others exist.
D) Some do things better than others. Let them compete it out, more features for all of us.
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
It is definitely snappier than Google Maps. Images update a lot faster while zooming in.
http://bingmapsupdates.cloudapp.net/
This here is a Silverlight powered App using bing maps, and its most definitely a MUCH better experience than either the normal google maps or bing maps. Very nice and smooth zooming in and panning and whatnot, likely powered by Deepzoom. Now imagine that but with the full range of Map features and you'll probably get the idea.
AMAZING
So they cloned Google Earth....oh boy....
Actually Google Earth is a clone of Microsoft's Virtual Earth.
Where have you been kiddo?
The original project was a test of SQL and large amounts of data, terabytes, hence the pun of terraserver.
Terraserver split off to provide private images to people but the original Microsoft Terra server can still be found at:
http://terraserver.microsoft.net
What you are missing, is the person was demonstrating a 'silverlight' control that uses Virtual Earth data instead of having to run a separate application or install a plug-in like, which both Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Maps require if you want to see enhanced or 3D versions of the maps.
It would be like a Flash application showing Google Earth content, although the 3D in Flash is a bit harder to achieve where Silverlight can do this with a few lines of code in the latest versions.
That sure is funny, here i thought Silverlight was a proprietary plug-in from Microsoft. I had no idea my Firefox supports it out of the box. Silverlight is now a freely available open standard which anyone can implement? Where can i download the complete specification?
THAT'S what you homed in on? That one line? Right there? His whole post that essentially made you look completely misinformed, and you homed in one two extra words that allowed you to miss the point completely?
I mean, is this some sort of mystical troll-fu? I don't understand. Your world view is baffling. Are there really people like this?
Do you, you know, do they give you a driver's license and let you watch R-rated movies? I'm just wondering. I mean, ability to perceive and judge the world around you and tell reality from otherwise. I mean, I'd ask if you were allowed to vote, but that right's given to anyone and their dimwit uncle nowadays.
firefox has out of the box support for plugins like silverlight and moonlight(the open source implementation of silverlight that runs on linux ) just like it has support for the flash plugin out of the box.
and here's a link to a link to the specification, novell has implemented silverlight 2.0 for linux(Moonlight) and is working with 3.0 now
http://blogs.windowsclient.net/rob_relyea/...-published.aspx
the msdn link to all the xaml specifications
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd...9(PROT.10).aspx
that was the first result returned from a search engine when i searched for "silverlight specification", so use your head and you won't look like such a tool.. btw the .net framework is an open spec as well
Last edited by Drew.0 on 11 Sep 2009 - 21:35
and here's a link to a link to the specification, novell has implemented silverlight 2.0 for linux(Moonlight) and is working with 3.0 now
http://blogs.windowsclient.net/rob_relyea/...-published.aspx
the msdn link to all the xaml specifications
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd...9(PROT.10).aspx
that was the first result returned from a search engine when i searched for "silverlight specification", so use your head and you won't look like such a tool.. btw the .net framework is an open spec as well
i really wish you were not so stupid. The specs for the codecs are in there? If you knew anything, you would know they aren't. So no, you can not simply implement it. And the spec is really meaningless since Microsoft controls in and can change it at any time. How long do your really think the Mac version will exist? Take IE for example...
Dude, Chrome? Who are you kidding. You need IE or Firefox and Silverlight installed.
its not like linux is significant in a market share point of view, and they always act suprised or outraged when someone deosnt want to support the 9999999 distro's out there, where half of them are pure garbage
as if silverlight was a codec.... VC1 (the codec you speak of) is an open standard established by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme...choverview.aspx
if you knew enough to read then you would see that the standard isn't owned by MS. and since it's not owned by ms, ms does not have the spec on their site... SMPTE does though.. http://www.smpte.org/standards
mono and moonlight (the open source implementations of .net and silverlight) works on macs as well.. go download a copy of it the source, then you can burn it to a cd and hide it in your basement to teach those guys at ms a lesson
Last edited by Drew.0 on 13 Sep 2009 - 01:26
I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium x64 on a laptop that sports an nVidia 7150M and it draws much faster and more smoothly than Google maps.
Oh yeah, ROFL at the guy scared of the specs changing. So what if they do?
Last edited by Solid Knight on 14 Sep 2009 - 03:15
The problem with Microsoft is they are not trying to compete by being the best search engine, they try to do it using dodgy methods, like paying people to use the engine, billion dollar ad campaigns. Then they also game the results, like changing the results for "Windows sucks" so they point to pro-Windows pages.
Microsoft have great products, but they also have this history of being very dodgy. When will they stop doing this stuff?
Microsoft have great products, but they also have this history of being very dodgy. When will they stop doing this stuff?
you mean like google paying firefox ****loads of money to make their engine the default firefox search engine? And what is wrong or dodgy about advertising?
By the way, if I search for windows sucks or microsoft sucks on bing I'm definately not getting pro-Windows pages. If you make accusations that are easy to verify, at least make sure they are true. You're a troll of the worst kind!
But everything he says before that is blind anti-microsoft propaganda and usually completely incorrect. He's run out of real things to complain about so now he has started to complain about a company advertising their product, hilarious.
At the moment I prefer Google to Bing, I found Bing lacked on the quality of search results, especially for images.
Microsoft have great products, but they also have this history of being very dodgy. When will they stop doing this stuff?
I like competition.
Google has been so stale these past years.
Google deserves competition.
Google has been so stale these past years.
Google deserves competition.
How can you say Google maps has been stale? Their UI has been in constant flux and they've added tons of features (street view, traffic info, bus routes, customizable directions, etc)
But everything he says before that is blind anti-microsoft propaganda and usually completely incorrect. He's run out of real things to complain about so now he has started to complain about a company advertising their product, hilarious.
At the moment I prefer Google to Bing, I found Bing lacked on the quality of search results, especially for images.
I know, there are only two types of people here, fanboys or trolls. Either you love Microsoft unreservedly, or you are a troll. It is all black and white here.
Says the guy who thinks advertising is a dodgy business tactic.
No, the news here is that they're planning big updates to Bing Maps, and greater use of Silverlight. Pretty simple.
waiting for x64 version of flash and slverlight then I can fianlly complete my switch to a 64 bit OS
Well ever hear of Internet Explorer? Enthusiast Firefox Builds and the rumored Chrome 64bit build.
It is kind of a catch 22. 64bit browsers are not widely used because plugins are not available. The companies making the plugins feel no pressure to produce 64bit plugins because the demand isn't there...
The client-side code used to surface Bing Maps is a a really innovative, elegant solution. The server is state-of-the-art, and the architecture utilises streaming technology to control the flow of data. I wonder if the new Maps will use Silverlight 3.0.
However I feel that they're behind Google in up-to-date imagery. Whether this is actually the case or not I don't know!
However I feel that they're behind Google in up-to-date imagery. Whether this is actually the case or not I don't know!
There are places where Yahoo Maps is more updated though.
I end up triple-checking among Bing Maps, Google Maps, and Yahoo Maps.
heh.. I wish
http://www.imgdash.com/uploads/f6a06_Untitled.png
http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw...korea_rel96.jpg
South Korea?
Really a couple of Megabytes that provides a full API and Graphical platform inside a full .NET managed code framework is 'bloatware'?
Silverlight has more API features and functionality than most OSes did in the early 90s, and it is STILL ONLY A FEW MEGABYTES in size, something that makes Win 3.1 look bloated.
Bag on it for whatever legitimate reasons, but bloatware is not one that really works...
::cough:: troll ::cough::
And I use Google maps most the time because Bing maps do not update various sections of the map ( well they do very slowly) when you move to different areas. This alone is very annoying and will keep my from using Bing maps.
With Silverlight, this might change and be even more noticeable in quick rendering.
I hope they also have a refresh of their Mobile version of Bing with some cool new features.
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