Microsoft's Bing Maps updated

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Microsoft have updated and optimised Bing Maps with a set of new features and an improved look and feel.

Chris Pendleton, Bing Maps Technical Evangelist, confirmed the changes in a company blog post yesterday. "If you visited Bing Maps today you may have noticed a new look and feel. Well, that's because it has a new look and feel" noted Pendleton.

The full list of changes are listed below:

Draggable Routes - Generate a router and drag the route to change directions
Zoom Bar - Jump to specific zoom levels within predefined settings
Command Parsing - Intelligent searching, for example want traffic info? Enter "Seattle Traffic" in the Bing Maps search box.
Embed a Map - You can now embed Bing Maps on your website
Dynamic Compute - Bing Maps is now running in data centers in 7 locations around the world meaning you will locate the closest server to you
New Navigation - Button bar contains improved navigation features
World Wrap - Bing maps no longer stops at the international date line
Optimised Bing Maps - The default Bing Maps home page dropped from 678kb to 484kb

Microsoft also announced a November Bing Maps imagery update for Europe. 178,720 square kilometers of Europe has been updated with more recent imagery. At the end of Pendleton's blog post he hints "what could possibly be next?", we're still expecting a Silverlight version of Bing Maps similar to the Bing Maps World Tour, perhaps that's next. The Bing Maps update is the latest in a series of updates that Microsoft is rolling out to Bing this week, including Bing Video.

Thanks to nifke for the news tip

(1 reply) #1 lawtai on 11 Nov 2009 - 14:27

Looks pretty good.

#1.1 nifke on 11 Nov 2009 - 14:33

Indeed.
The first version of bing maps annoyed me a little bit. The default search was a business/company search instead of locations. Now they changed that part also ^^

#2 acido00 on 11 Nov 2009 - 14:32

The new street view feature is awesome! thanks for the update!

(1 reply) #3 zeke009 on 11 Nov 2009 - 15:10

I do miss being able to close the directions panel. There are times when I just need to zoom in to get a street name and have no intention of getting directions, viewing it full screen is a little easier. Oh well.

#3.1 GP007 on 11 Nov 2009 - 15:36

You still can, notice the little white arrow at the bottom left of the map window? The one that is pointing to the left in the screenshot over the bing logo. That extends the map to the whole window.

(5 replies) #4 Remote Sojourner on 11 Nov 2009 - 15:26

Still a fail compared to Google Maps

#4.1 TRC on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:24

Your comment is fail. Try giving a few reasons next time.

#4.2 cabron on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:48

TRC said,

Well in my job I have to use a lot the map to locate businesses address and I use Google Maps. I tried Bing Maps but is confusing and not very user friendly. I prefer Google Maps, it is a pretty straigh forward tool.

#4.3 Doli on 11 Nov 2009 - 18:08

cabron said,

Confusing? They are both use the same top left search box area when looking for a place.

#4.4 dvb2000 on 12 Nov 2009 - 10:32

Remote Sojourner said,

Indeed, the resolution of my home with google is good enough to see the tiles on the roof. With bing I can barely make out the house!

#4.5 Neoauld on 12 Nov 2009 - 11:36

dvb2000 said,

ya i agree
and im not sure if im just overly used to gmaps, but i cant find myself feeling comfortable with bing maps

However im going to switch to bing again for a fewdays to see how i like it!

#5 Mr Spoon on 11 Nov 2009 - 15:36

I guess it is one step closer to enabling it for Multimap.

(3 replies) #6 Shaun_ on 11 Nov 2009 - 15:39

My company still isn't on Bing maps

google - Here

But the same place on Bing is a field

#6.1 BigBoy on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:11

Reverse can be said for many locations too. They are on different update schedule obviously. Therefore - having a choice is a good thing.

#6.2 nifke on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:26

has nothing to do with Bing or Google. It's about the companies that provide the maps for companies like Microsoft or Google. But it will get some update for sure in the future

#6.3 winrez on 12 Nov 2009 - 05:37

Shaun_ said,

They both have the same buildings your bing map is zoomed out more than the google earth one

#7 WooHoo!!! on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:17

I see the UK doesn't get the multimap powered by Bing any more. Consistency at last. Keep it up.

#8 raghavny80 on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:32

Major advantage of Google Maps is that my browser remembers my google cookies and google remembers my recent places so that I do not have to type the full address again and again. My browser does not remember my Passport login after I close the browser and reopen it (with default IE install settings) and Bing maps does not officially support Opera. Also it remembers recent addresses only for the current session.
I am trying hard to make a switch out of google maps but yahoo, mapquest and bing are refusing to let me make the switch to their service.

#9 Max1978 on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:40

A Silverlight version would be great.

Did anyone notice in the new map that when you move the map, the number of businesses displayed in the categories changes dynamically?

#10 peterish on 11 Nov 2009 - 16:53

Seems like an effort to carbon-copy Google's already popular features, while not offering anything new or exciting.

Also, I got a popup error message saying some feature wasn't supported in Chrome??...way to go.

#11 MercatorDan on 11 Nov 2009 - 17:39

I just tried to embed a map into my website. It worked...sort of. The embeded maps appears, but the content from my collection is not there. If I click "View Larger Map", the content from my collection does appear on that map though. Anyone else having this problem?

#12 M_Lyons10 on 11 Nov 2009 - 17:50

I like it. This might eventually pull me away from Google Maps...

(1 reply) #13 Soldiers33 on 11 Nov 2009 - 19:01

i like it. aerial view is a bit outdated, but birds eye is quite recent in my area.

#13.1 GP007 on 11 Nov 2009 - 22:12

They need to update soon, specially for Europe, at least where I am anyways.

(1 reply) #14 dewaaz on 11 Nov 2009 - 19:19

Bird's eye is cool

But what's with the "Go to Bing in the United States" crap in the bottom corner? I find that REALLY annoying as a non-US citizen.

It's almost like "oh just in case you want the AMERICAN site, you know, cos almost everyone on the internet is american and it's quite possible you made a mistake"

not happy

#14.1 Growled on 11 Nov 2009 - 21:27

dewaaz said,

Bird's eye is cool

Yeah, I really like that feature.

#15 ripsure on 13 Nov 2009 - 02:20

Wow reciently there has been a change to Bing, Maps. as of Monday or Tuesday one of the main funtions was being able to activate the 3D mode, Then with the birds eye view engaged, tilt the earth giving view to topical map information as well as the birds eye view grid. This is no longer a functioning. WTF this function is what made this mapping system the best on the block. The folks over there have lowered the bar.

Please advise

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